The Circle
by The Ninth Doctor
Summary: A fanfic novella on how one man's encounter with The Doctor affected all of time.
1. Chapter 0

Disclaimer:

Doctor Who and all related characters are property of the BBC. This is a work of fan-fiction.

Forward.

I am a Watcher. I simply observe events as they unfold and record them. Most of the time it is mundane and not worth noticing. I will record any event and then it will go into the archives. Most of the time it is never consulted again. This particular story is different. Most of the events that catch my particular interest involve a temporal causality paradox. Even those tend to be dull from my perspective. This one is different. I was moved to the point of interference. For a Watcher to become involved in events is a high crime. Even so this was a unique set of circumstances that prompted my actions. I have come to believe that one of my fellow Watchers was also involved in this. I document this to make you, the reader, to judge my actions and to see if they were justified. That being said I am not here to tell my story. This is the story of the vampire Emetrius.


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Point of origin

Sunday November 4, 1888

It was a chilly evening in London. Nigel Brown pulled out his pocket watch and noted that the time was half past eight. The sun had long set and he looked at the empty park bench where he was supposed to meet Elizabeth. He had intended to propose to her this evening. He had in his possession his Grandmother wedding ring that he was going to give her. His eyes got that dreamy look in them whenever he thought of her. He had met her four years earlier almost by chance. He smiled at the memory.

* * *

He remembered walking out the bakery with his breakfast, a muffin, when he walked right into her. As they collided, they both fell to the ground. She had been carrying an armload of books, which she promptly dropped with papers flying.

"Why don't you watch where you are going?" she said crossly.

He was astonished at her when he looked at her. She was about 5'4" tall and had chest length brown hair. Her eyes were fawn colored and she had a perfect smile. She was wearing a blue dress and she was the most beautiful woman that he had ever seen.

"Excuse me," he said. "Let me help you with those."

He began to pick up the books as she was sorting and organizing her papers. He was definitely taken by her.

"I'm Nigel," he stammered.

"No, you are clumsy. I assume that you name is Nigel then?" she asked as she took back her books.

"My name? Yes of course." He said as he felt the flush of embarrassment creep up his face. "I didn't catch your name, Miss"

"That's because I didn't give it to you Nigel." She said as she tried to look cross at him. It was a losing battle as a smile began to play at the corners of her mouth. She looked him over once. He stood 5'8" tall and had blond hair. He had dark brown eyes and had a medium build. She stood looking at him as several seconds of awkward silence went by.

"Will you at least allow me to carry your books for you?"

At last a smile broke out on her face and it had the effect of making Nigel weak in his knees. Without a word she handed him her books and began walking down the street. After they had taken several steps she stopped and looked at him and said, "Your muffin is still back there." She said with a giggle.

Nigel almost dropped her books from sheer embarrassment as he went back and retrieved his muffin.

"I'd offer you some of this muffin but it seems to have gotten dirty when I dropped it."

They began walking down the street and walked for a couple of blocks.

"We have arrived at my destination Nigel. Thank you for carrying my books." She said as she took them back from him. They were stopped in front of a store that said Mattocks Books on it. "Theses belong to my employer Mr. Mattock."

She opened the door and was about to walk inside. Nigel stood there with a dreamy expression on his face as she turned and looked at him.

"I'll be free by half past 3 this afternoon. Pick me up for tea?" she asked.

"Uh…Yes of course." He managed to say. His hesitation brought another giggle from her.

"My name is Elizabeth by the way," she said as she disappeared inside the bookstore leaving him on the sidewalk with the same smile on his face.

* * *

He remembered picking her up that afternoon and they did have afternoon tea together. They had over the course of the last four years gotten very close to one another. Elizabeth Jones. He was so in love with her that it caused him to constantly think about her. Today was unusual as she was two hours late. She had, of course been late from time to time but never this late. He was concerned and just a bit cold as a cold rain began to fall. He decided that he would go to her residence and find out if she were ok. He stopped by Mattocks Books to see if she were there. She had told him that Mr. Mattock had received as shipment of books from Cairo chronicling the events of one ancient Egypt. He tried the door and it was locked. He peered in a window and thought that he saw someone in the store. He paused and looked for a bit and finally dismissed it as his imagination. He walked and descended into the tunnel of the London Underground to catch a train to take him near her residence. As he waited for the train, he noticed a most peculiar sight. Off to one side and well out of the way, he saw a light source. He paused and looked at his watch and noticed that it was a quarter of nine. He walked a couple of steps and thought that he heard his train approaching. That was when he heard the noise. It was deeply frightening to say the least. It seemed to be rapidly approaching from the opposite side of the tunnel. He heard a scream that chilled him more than the cold damp air could. The sound of that scream contained a hatred and rage and yet it seemed so unreal that he may have imagined it. He walked towards the light source and that was when he noticed its source. It was a wooden blue box. In bold letters it said Police Box and with smaller letters in between the to words it said public call. He noticed that the door was partially ajar. This was a mystery indeed. From the doorway he could see that the interior of the box was illuminated but the windows were dark. He lived to solve mysteries and this was yet another. Cautiously he opened the door and peered inside. What he beheld was like something out of a dream. He stepped inside the box and took several tentative steps and then came to himself. He should have reached the backside of this box already and yet he was in a large room. The construction of the room was different than anything that he had ever seen before. He felt a stab of fear and uncertainty as he turned and exited the box. He walked around the box and verified that it could not have contained the room he had just exited. He was pondering these things when he heard that baleful scream again. It was coming from the tunnel to his left and he turned and looked. He beheld a nightmare as a black robed figure was racing towards him. It might have been a woman but the creatures' eyes held him in shock and he was paralyzed with fear. The nightmare screamed again and there was no denying the fact that it was real and headed right for him.

"Run you fool!" came a voice further down the tunnel. He snapped out of his fear-induced paralysis and reentered the blue box and slammed the door. He noticed that there was a lock on the door and he turned it. Something large and heavy sounding crashed against the door again and again. He then heard what sounded like a titanic struggle outside of the door. Fear once again over came him and he ran looking for an escape from the nightmare that seemed to have claimed him. He found a corridor and ran down it, finally finding what appeared to be a cloakroom. He ran to the back of it and hid. His heart was thundering in his chest and he was having trouble breathing. The taste of fear was in his mouth and he closed his eyes in agony against it. The words that echoed in his memory "Run you fool!" were spoken with his own voice.

"This is not possible!" he moaned as he began to weep. Finally the events strained him to his breaking point and he lost consciousness.

* * *

Nigel was in a happy place. He had just met Elizabeth's father. His name was Lord Stanley Jones. It had taken several months just to convince Elizabeth that he was interested in her and not because she came from money. Nigel's parents had left him a stipend as he studied ancient world history at the University of London. He could still hear the voice of his mother as she chided him, "Nigel you shouldn't be studying in the past but should be looking forward to the sciences where you can make a comfortable living." He had been considering exactly that until he found out that Elizabeth had also been studying world history. Her employer Mr. Mattock was a fellow from the history department at Oxford and she was his apprentice as well as his assistant. They would have lively discussions about Egyptian history. She had been interested in the culture and society structure of the Egyptians while he had been primarily interested in their architecture and sciences. Their individual research would compliment the work of the other and they formed a solid bond of friendship in this fashion. He had realized that he had found his soul mate and he endeavored to convince her that he was hers as well. They were researching a particularly vague city in Egypt one night when he decided against reason and kissed her. Her reaction to the kiss was as shocking as it was unexpected. She had got a hard look on her face and slapped him so hard that he saw stars.

"Nigel Brown if you do that again unbidden and I shall never speak to you again." She had said and then she stormed away leaving him hurt and confused. He had gathered up the study material and retired to his room at the university. He lay in bed and stared at the ceiling when there came knock at the door. He opened the door and there stood Elizabeth. It was apparent that she had been crying.

"Nigel", she said. "Can I come in?"

"Of course Elizabeth." He said as he backed away from the door. "Listen about earlier…"

She silenced him by placing a finger over his lips.

"When I was in primary school one of my classmates had taken an interest in me. It was an inappropriate interest to say the least. He had feigned an interest in my studies as a pretext to get me alone with him and then he attempted to have an affair with me. When I resisted he began to slander me. He said that I had come on to him and I was shunned by all of my friends. I decided at that moment never to let anyone get that close to me again." She paused to take a breath as the tears streamed down her face.

"Elizabeth," he began as she silenced him again.

"I was not ever going to let anyone get that close to me again so there would be, could be no doubt as to my integrity. Then I met you Nigel. You are different and kind. You seem to be genuinely interested in me and if you are feigning your interest in Egyptian history, you are the most accomplished fraud I have ever met. Then you kissed me unbidden and I reacted without thinking. I am sorry."

"Elizabeth," he began again. When she did not stop him he continued. "When I am with you, everything seems more real, more exciting, I cannot even begin on how to describe how I feel about you. From that first day when I met you quite by accident, I was taken by you. The passion that I feel for you was so overwhelming that when I was that close to you I could have resisted but I chose not to. I want to be with you more than anything. I love you Elizabeth."

"Nigel, I don't know if I am capable of loving you back but I want to explore my feelings with you to see if it is possible. I ask you to be patient with me."

Without waiting for a response, she turned and left him there alone that night. It took several months but finally she admitted that she had the same feelings for him as he had for her. She had insisted that he meet her parents and now he stood in the withering glare of her father.

"My daughter is more precious to me than all the wealth that I possess." Lord Jones had said. "She means a great deal to me as she is my only surviving offspring. I must admit that I never thought that she would find another male suitor since that wretched business several years back. Has she told you about that?"

"Yes sir, she has." Nigel said.

"What exactly are your intentions with my daughter," Lord Jones asked as he lit his pipe.

"Sir?"

"Young man I remember what it is like to be young. If you think that Elizabeth is just going to be another conquest for you, you are mistaken. If that is what you are after you can find an accommodating harlot and kindly leave my daughter out of it."

"Sir, I take offence to that statement."

"Oh? And why is that Nigel Brown?" Lord Jones asked as he exhaled a cloud of sweet smelling smoke from his pipe.

"My intention toward your daughter is to marry her and spend the rest of my days cherishing her. I desire to make her happy and to stimulate her mind. She completes me."

Lord Jones looked at Nigel for a full minute. When Nigel didn't turn away or fidget he looked upon him with respect.

"What does Elizabeth think of this, Nigel?" Lord Jones asked.

"I haven't asked her yet. I wanted your permission first." Nigel replied.

"What would you do if I denied you that permission?"

"Sir with all respect, I would ask her to marry me anyways." Nigel said.

"You know that I would disinherit her if that was the case and you would be chased out of England. Where would you go? Germany perhaps?" Lord Jones asked.

"Sir with my education I would take her and emigrate to America. Boston or New York and get a teaching assignment. I am well able to provide for us with or without your support. I ask as a courtesy nothing more, nothing less."

Lord Jones laughed aloud and came up to Nigel. He put his hand on his shoulder and said, "Son if she agrees to marry you, you indeed have my blessing. She could not have a better choice of young men to come and court her."

With that, Nigel had intended to ask her at the park the next day but she didn't show up. Then he remembered what had happened.

***

He opened his eyes and the cloakroom that he found himself in had not vanished. It wasn't a dream but a strange and horrible reality. He decided to flee from this nightmare and find Elizabeth. He cautiously made his way back down the corridor from which he came and approached the door in which he had entered. He paused and listened but it seemed to be quiet outside the door. As he was reaching toward the door, he heard voices on the outside of it. He froze in momentary panic and then he turned and ran back towards the cloakroom from which he had come from. He heard what sounded like a key turn the lock and the door opened.

"Doctor, I'll bet you five quid that it would look like you if it still had the nose." A female voice said.

"Rose, I cannot take that bet in good faith." A male voice replied.

"Ok Doctor, lets make it interesting. Ten quid." She said.

"Your on Rose. I hope that you have cash then" he replied.

These two seemed friendly enough and the strangest of noises began. It sounded like someone scraping a piece of metal up and down an off tune piano wire. He felt the floor shift under his feet and then the movement stopped.

"Lets go look at it Doctor and then you can pay me and we can go and have fish and chips." The female said and Nigel heard the door open.

"Ok Rose, it will be light soon and then we will see." He heard the male voice say, as they seemed to be moving away from the doorway.

Nigel looked at his watch and it was half past nine. He pondered what they could have possibly meant as they said it would be light soon. He had apparently been unconscious for about a half an hour. He worked up the nerve and went to the door. He listened for a moment and hearing none, he exited.

***

It had been a strange day with several strange and unexplainable events. Even so, nothing could have prepared him for what he saw. He was no longer in the tunnel of the London Underground. In fact, he could assume that he was no longer in London. There was no moon that night and yet high in the sky the moon was full. The nighttime air was very warm and it seemed that he was in a desert. He looked around and noticed an impossible sight of a pyramid. It would seem to him that somehow he was in Egypt. He could see the Great Pyramid of Giza in the background. It seemed that fear was to be his constant companion as he looked on this scene that seemed so real and yet could not be. He wandered away from the blue box, momentarily forgetting it. It was strangely fascinating to be here despite the improbability of it.

"This has got to be a dream." He said aloud, his own voice sounding strange in his ears. He walked along the sand in the light of the full moon and was completely taken by surprise when he put his foot down in a place that looked solid but was not. He fell some twenty feet down into a pit that was somehow concealed. It was at least a hundred feet across and yet he failed to notice it. He climbed to his feet and noticed that he had twisted his ankle. He looked around and there were two statues on either side of the pit. He walked up towards one of them and looked at it, thinking that maybe he could climb up and out of the pit. As he approached one, the opposite one moved. He walked over to investigate and noticed that there was a small room with a stone chest with in.

"Great." He said. "I am going insane now."

He laughed a humorless laugh as he approached the stone chest. How bizarre can this dream get he thought to himself. He touched the chest and ran his fingers over it. It sprang open and revealed a red vapor that seemed to be emanating light. He did not know what it was only that he felt a feeling of dread. There was something dreadful about what ever that was and he decided to take his chances inside the strange blue box. He limped back toward the other statue when he noticed that the vapor had left the box and was pursuing him. He cried out and tried to run. He fell to the ground and the vapor overtook him. It completely encompassed him and he drew in a deep breath to scream but no sound came forth. The vapor entered him and he was fundamentally changed at that moment. He ceased breathing and his heart stopped beating. He knew he was dying and yet he remained completely aware of everything. The night seemed to turn to day. He could hear the noise of the insects of the desert. He could hear the man and the woman that were in the blue box with him and yet he lay there wide eyed and staring. Because he was looking up he noticed that the two of them appeared to walk on thin air and walked completely away from him unaware. He felt the floor begin to move, (How can I feel anything I am dead) and when it had completed its movement he was laying in the desert sand. (I want my heart to beat again and I want to live) he thought desperately. He could hear his own heart as it began to beat again. He forced himself to breath and yet he fundamentally knew that he needed neither to live. (Live? Is this life? I know that I just died and yet I am more aware than ever before.)

He ran with superhuman speed towards the blue box and he heard the sound from earlier, the sound of someone scraping a piece of metal up and down an off tune piano wire. The box began to pulse light and fade in and out of reality, in an out until it was gone. He screamed with fear and rage until there was no more air in his lungs.


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: The Gathering 1000 BC

He stood there for a long time looking at the spot where the blue box had disappeared. All manner of confusing thoughts assailed him. Finally he looked towards the pyramids in the distance. He desperately wanted to wake up from this nightmare and yet he was all too aware that it was no dream. He could hear the beating of his own heart if he chose to focus on it. He willed it to stop and it did. He didn't fall over and he could move at will. (This is insane.) He felt for his pulse and found none. He willed that his heart begin beating again and his pulse returned. (What do I do now?)

***

"What do we do now?" Nigel had asked Elizabeth.

"I feel that we should continue our studies and see where that leaves us." She had replied.

"I'm not sure that I can do that." He said. It had been a week since the kiss that left him with a sore jaw. He still wanted her more than he had wanted anything in his life.

"Nigel, it would be a lie for me to say that I did not care for you but I'm not sure how I feel. It will take some time for me to sort these things out."

He felt ashamed for trying to pressure her and several minutes of silence passed before he spoke again.

"Elizabeth I am in love with you and I cannot help that. I don't want to fall out of love with you. I can wait for you if that is what it takes." He said.

"Thank you Nigel."

***

He began to walk towards the pyramids. Amazing structures that they were and he should feel excitement to see them. All he felt now was a sense of loss and fear. (Nigel Brown is dead. I don't know who or what I am now.) He paused and looked back to the spot where the blue box had stood. There was no blue box. He thought that he saw someone there. He turned and hurried back to the spot. He discovered a man digging in the sand. The man had been unaware of his presence. Upon approaching this man he was amazed to find that he could hear his heartbeat. He was sensing something else. He closed his eyes and could see in his mind that the man was searching for treasure. It came to him. This man was a grave robber. The man suddenly became aware of his presence and stood and turned to look at him. He could see himself through the other mans eyes and felt an enormous amount of fear. He opened his own eyes and looked upon the man. He could see fear mirrored in his face.

"Xxx xxx xxxx xx xx xxxx" the man said.

"I don't understand you." He had said in return.

"Xxx xxxx xx xxxx xx xxx." The man said as he gestured wildly in another direction.

"What are you trying to tell me?" he said.

"Xxxx xxx xxxx xx!" the man yelled as he turned and ran.

He watched him go and knew that he could easily overtake him if he wanted to. (To what point would I do that?) He finally sat down in the sand to contemplate.

***

Several months had passed and Elizabeth and Nigel had grown closer. They had developed a deep friendship. It was obvious that she had affection for him. They had taken the day off from studying and had spent the afternoon together in the countryside. They were holding hands and watching the sun set.

"Elizabeth?" he asked.

"Yes Nigel."

"I think that I am going to kiss you." He said looking steadily at her.

"What if I slap you again?"

"Then I will have a sore jaw again."

"What if I don't want you to kiss me?" she asked, her voice small.

"Do you not want me to? I won't if you tell me not to."

"I don't know Nigel, I…" she began to say as she was interrupted by his kiss.

She tensed up and for a moment, Nigel thought that she was going to slap him and storm off again. She surprised him by pulling back and looking at him.

"Elizabeth, I …" was all that he was able to say as she returned the kiss. For several sweet moments they held the kiss and then it ended. He was elated at that and he could feel the racing of his heart. He was shocked to see that she had began crying.

"Elizabeth what's wrong?"

"Nigel I need you to promise me something."

"Anything." He said.

"I want you to promise that you will never leave me."

"As long as I live, Elizabeth I will love you. For as long as I live."

***

As he sat there in the sand, he could feel the tears running down his cheeks at the memory. (I still love you Elizabeth even though I no longer live.)

{Does it amaze you that love even transcends death?}

"What?" he exclaimed as he leapt to his feet. There was a figure standing behind him.

{The love of a woman is indeed special but that is behind you now. You have started a new reality.}

"Who are you?" he asked with a wild look in his eyes. The man was speaking _inside_ his head as if he could read his thoughts.

{I can read your thoughts and you will have that ability as well.}

This was too much. He turned around and ran as fast as he could. He was running faster than any normal man could and he turned to look behind himself when he tripped and fell to the ground. He stood to his feet and the there he was right beside him. He looked at the man beside him and he was dressed in furs and animal hides. He was taller than Nigel but more slender.

{Come now we need to talk with the others, as you are the fifth and final.}

He turned to run again when the other reached out and grabbed his arm.

{My patience has limits and I will not chase you. Come with me now.}

With that, they both rose into the air and flew rapidly to the north.

***

As they landed, he felt great to be back on solid ground once again. He was aware of the others. There were two other men and a woman.

{This is Nooroo} He pointed to one of the men dressed in robes that one would expect to see in the desert.

{This is Death} He pointed to the other man who was dressed in leather and was armed with a long curved blade.

{This is Austriel} He pointed to the woman.

Is this another one of your creations? Her voice entered his head as she looked at him. It was unnerving to have her gaze upon him but there was something familiar about it as well. She took a step towards him and he shrank away.

{He is the fifth.}

I have been searching for that for six hundred years! She was livid. There was hatred on her face.

{We now can consolidate our selves and move forward. We will call him Emetrius.}

[Why is it that you name us?] Nooroo asked.

"I don't understand!" shouted Emetrius who had been Nigel.

{Because I tamed Death.}

Emetrius had never experienced such fear as this. Although he knew he was no longer alive, this fear made it seem as though he was.

I will have him. I will take what he took from me and _I_ will lead us forward.

{You will keep your place Austriel.} He said as he regarded her.

She launched herself at Emetrius as she emitted as blood curdling shriek. Emetrius was completely overcome with horror as he realized that this was the same creature that drove him into the blue box and began this nightmare. Without a second thought he fled into the night. As he ran, Austriel overtook him and violently threw him to the ground. He instinctively curled up into a fetal position as she hammered him with blow after blow. She grabbed him by the throat and turned his face towards hers. She had a feral look on her face when the de facto leader of this group caught up with them. He closed his fist and hit Austriel with such force that she was thrown several feet away. They began to grapple with one another.

"XXX XXXX XXXX XXXXX!" he cried at her.

Her only reply was another blood curdling shriek.

Emetrius once again fled into the night as childhood images of the stories of the wail of a banshee came to his mind unbidden and tormented him.

***

"Nigel, I think that you would make an excellent father." Elizabeth said.

"Elizabeth what brought that on?" Nigel asked. They were just finishing up with afternoon tea.

She didn't answer him at first as she looked out the window at a gentle falling snow.

"When we get married, if we get married I want to have lots of children."

Now it was his turn to be quiet. He might not have spoken at all if she hadn't taken his hands in hers.

"I love you Elizabeth." He said as tears fell down her face. "I love you more than words can convey."

He marveled at the way that she could be so happy and yet cry. It was just one of the mysteries that…

***

When I catch you I'm going to kill you.

Emetrius had stopped running as the memory overtook him. With tears streaming down his own face he ran on. He ran for what seemed like hours and he could see the eastern sky brightening.

{Emetrius.} The voice said in his head.

"Why won't you leave me alone." He cried in anguish.

{You should seek shelter. Tell me where you are and I can help you.}

Emetrius did not answer. He longed for the daylight so that maybe this nightmare would vanish and he would find himself with Elizabeth. Despite the horror of the moment, he smiled at her memory. As the sky brightened with the oncoming dawn, he was getting more and more uneasy. In fact he was on the verge of panic once again. It had been hours since the encounter with Austriel. He stopped and looked towards the east.

{Emetrius! Take shelter now!}

He ignored the voice and looked to the east as the sun's first rays broke over the eastern horizon. He could have not been less prepared for what happened next. He felt as if his body had been placed in a blacksmith's furnace and heated up with the bellows. He fell to the ground and began to shriek and writhe with agony. The pain was unbearable and he screamed and screamed. He opened his eyes and that was the worst. He felt as if liquid fire had been poured into his skull and now he burned inside as well. He screamed one final time and lost consciousness.


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3 Transitions Nineveh

718 BC

Her name was Janaline. That was not the name that she had been born with but that was no longer important. Her master had given her the name the night that he became her master. She shuddered at the memory. She had met him one night and was immediately taken with him. His hair was a yellow color like none that she had ever seen before. All the men in her village of Kemet along the Nile had black hair like her own. He had a pale complexion. It was several shades lighter than hers was. She could get lost in his eyes. He father was a local priest and she had been betrothed to one of his acolytes. The man had disappeared one night. In fact several of the local men had gone missing. Some said that there was an evil spirit about. Others thought that they had just sailed away on along the Nile to another village down stream. People feared to go out after dark and even when they were locked within their homes, some would go missing. She was 21 when she met him. He had a most unusual name. He called himself Emetrius. She was fearless and because of that she would go out during the night when no one else would dare to. The night that she met him, the moon was full and she could feel more so than see him watching her. Briefly she felt like a prey animal being watched by a predator. He had been perched in a tree, watching her as she drew water from the Nile.

'You there!' she had cried out. 'What business do you have watching me like that?'

His smile had been chilling as he said, 'What business do you have out here when it is not safe?'

She had stared defiantly up at him and said. 'There is nothing amiss out here. Only you.'

He climbed down out of the tree like a cat. (Funny how she used to think that cats were gods.)

He stood before her and looked into her eyes. She felt as if he were staring into her heart instead. Part of her felt as if she should fear him but she was filled with indignation instead.

'Do you know who my father is?' She had asked.

'I do not particularly care who your father is.' He had replied in a matter of fact way.

She studied him and could sense no bravado. Everyone knew who her father was. He was the local high priest and all feared him. All of the younger priests had wanted to marry her. When her father had chosen her fiancé all other would be suitors went about their business. None of the men could look at her because of her demanding father. Any who defied him would meet with an unkind end and everyone in the village knew it.

'All I have to do is cry out and it will not go well with you.' She had said. His visage had changed with that comment. Only for a brief moment but it was there nonetheless. His eyes had emanated a red light and fangs had appeared in his mouth. Then all had returned to normal.

'Is that a fact?' he had asked, staring at her. She had felt like Death itself had brushed up against her and yet she felt no fear. None whatsoever. It still amazed her to the present day the total lack of fear that she felt. She didn't answer her but stared defiantly at him. He had reached out and touched her and she could feel something profound take hold of her and yet she could not quite describe it. He released his grip on her and turned and began to walk away. When he had walked a stones throw away, he looked over his shoulder at her and said, 'You intrigue me.'

***

As she was reminiscing about the past she became aware of the man that was stalking her. He was looking at her with undisguised lust in his eyes as he lunged at her. She shrank away with feigned terror in her eyes. He grabbed her roughly and pressed a knife to her throat.

"Don't make a sound." He commanded. He shoved her through an open doorway into a room.

She fell to the floor and looked down, not meeting his gaze when a voice behind her said "What have we here?"

"Tonight's entertainment." Her assailant has said.

"I hope that she struggles. It makes it better for me." The newcomer said.

"I'm going first." Her assailant said as he reached for her hair. She looked up at him and he froze.

"Save some for me." his friend said as he took a drink from his wineskin.

The first man was horrified as he looked down at her. Her comely face had transformed into a terrifying visage as her teeth turned into fangs and her eyes glowed crimson. He had begun to turn to run when she pivoted on her one hand and swept out the second mans legs out from underneath him with her own legs. Completing that maneuver, she sprang to her feet and grabbed the first man by his throat. He stabbed wildly at her with his hand just before she grabbed him by the wrist. The knife fell from his hand as the bones in his wrist snapped under the pressure that she had grabbed him with. With shock and pain he grappled with her, desperately attempting to free himself from her grip. She tore open his neck and fastened her jaws to the wound. He was twice her size and yet she was able to restrain him with as much effort as a very strong man would exert to control a small child. Finally he succumbed to death and she allowed his lifeless body to slide to the floor. The second man had begun to back away from him as a tortured moan had escaped his lips. She turned and looked at him with his friends blood still dripping from her chin. With his back up against the wall he said, "No! Please don't!"

"I hope you struggle." She said as she reached for him. "It makes it better for me."

***

Her father had been adamant about her staying indoors once the sun went down. She defied him as well. She was rebelliously independent and yet she did not openly defy her father where others could see. He always would reluctantly agree to let her out after dark, even though more and more people would go missing. Every week a report would come in that someone else had disappeared without a trace. She sometimes would see her mysterious visitor and sometimes not. They had talked for hours on end. Sometimes he would describe his love for someone named Elizabeth and then he would mock her saying that she was the child of privilege and would not know real struggle or work. It had been four years since she had met him. She never saw him at all during the day, only at night; a fact that she found odd. Then came that fateful night. She had come out just after midnight as was her custom, and there he was in that same tree once again.

'Well isn't it the daughter of privilege.' He had said, mocking her.

'Well isn't it the man who would be a cat god, sitting up in his tree. Frightening little children and making people disappear in the night.' She said with her voice dripping with sarcasm. (She didn't even suspect that he was indeed the reason that people went missing.)

'I have had enough of you.' He said as his eyes glowed red. He leapt down from his perch in the tree and landed on his feet. Guards that her father had assigned to keep her safe sprang forward in her defense. One grabbed her and began to draw her away to safety while the other two grappled with Emetrius. One of them drew out a dagger and plunged it deep into his chest. Emetrius cried out and pulled out the dagger and blood poured out from the wound. He grabbed both guards and held on to them. Then it was their turn to cry out. At first they struggled and then they both sagged lifeless to the ground. The wound in his chest seemed to have disappeared as well.

'Run!' the remaining guard yelled at her as he drew out his sword.

She turned and began to run to the temple where her father was. She looked back as the remaining guard cried out has Emetrius had grabbed him. She turned the corner and burst into the temple where her father was performing a ceremony designed to keep the village safe from the evil that was besetting them.

'Father!' she cried out urgently. 'It's him!'

'Get her out of here!' he cried to his acolytes, enraged by the distraction.

The doors of the temple we flung open when four figures entered in. All four of them had glowing red eyes.

'These are my minions.' Emetrius said as he gestured to the other three that were with him. 'The priest and his daughter are mine you can consume the rest.

The other three herded the acolytes toward a corner as they drained their blood one by one. The priest interposed himself between Emetrius and his daughter.

'Kill me if you must but spare my daughter.' The priest said. The fear was evident in his eyes. Emetrius grabbed him and tore open his throat and drained him. (That was the only time that she could ever remember him doing that.)

'Are you ready to die?' Emetrius asked her as he approached her. She stood her ground and stared defiantly at him.

'No fear even to the last.' He said as he gripped her by her arms. She continued to stare at him as the life flowed out of her. Hatred and defiance were in her eyes but there was no fear. He almost let her go completely to death and then he paused. He began to give her his life force. There was a red vapor that enclosed about her and then there was fear in her eyes. That was the only time, up to that point, that he ever saw fear in her eyes. He made her stronger than the others. He had given her all of the life force that he was going to give her and she tried to get even more from him. She was aware that her heart had stopped beating and that she had stopped breathing and yet she could keep her feet. Emetrius struck her with a backhand and said, 'Henceforth you shall be known as Janaline. Your previous existence had ended and now you may call me master. You may not fear me now but you will.'

***

Emetrius was right about one thing; she did learn to fear him. He did tend to have that effect on people when he chose to. He would one day be so warm and charming and the next he would be so cruel. She has had a long time to get to know him. It had been 200 years since that night in her father's temple. Emetrius tended to have 5 minions at any one time. She and 4 others, none of the others ever survived longer than 10 years. As was her nature she asked him one time why he allowed her to exist and none of the others.

'You intrigue me.' He answered. She supposed because she could read and write was also a reason but it was wise not to push Emetrius. She had learned that lesson the hard way. One night after he had been particularly cruel, she had snapped at him, 'Did your master torment you like you do me?' He had grabbed her and began to draw out the life from her like he did on the night of her death. When she was almost gone, he had buried her in the floor of a dungeon and left her there. By her best estimates it took her the better part of a year to recover. When one of their ilk were unable to draw the life from the living, the pain is beyond description. She had to resort to first worms, then insects, and then rodents and finally she was able to come up out of the ground. She had looked skeletal. One of the prison guards had the misfortune of opening the cell door to investigate the hole in the floor. She quickly took his life and only then was she able to regain enough of her strength to leave the prison. She went to him to confront him, kill him if she could, or otherwise end the miserable existence that she had. When she found him she was completely surprised by his reaction. He was genuinely pleased to see her. 'Janaline,' he began. 'You completely exceed and surpass my every expectation of you. I'll make you my lieutenant.' With that he embraced her and gave to her more of his own life force. He made her 4 times more powerful than she had been. The experience was pure bliss. For a brief moment she was connected to him and was able to see inside of him. He caused fear inside of his victims because he was empathic. He felt what they felt and fear is what made him feel like he was alive like they were. At that moment she both loved him and hated him. After the embrace ended, he looked her in the eyes and said, 'If you ever cross me, I'll make your death so slow and painful that it will seem like it will never end.'

"I understand master,' she had said and then she kissed him. For one brief moment, he passionately returned the kiss and the bond was reestablished. (Elizabeth.) Then he pushed her away. 'I cannot return your love as my heart belongs to another.' He said. She knew that whoever Elizabeth was, she was lost to him. When she tried to kiss him again, that look reappeared in his eyes that made, (and still makes) her shudder. After that night their relationship grew. He confided in her the story of how he became what he was. He told her of Austriel, Nooroo, Death and the unnamed one. He told her of how the unnamed one still communicated with him from time to time. She paused in her reminiscing as she stripped down and redressed herself from her victim's clothes. She suspected that some of the garments that she had found had belonged to their prior victims. She had to change clothes because what she had been wearing was soaked in blood. Ignoring the two lifeless bodies behind her, she was busy changing clothes. Even in a city as decadent as Nineveh it would not do well to walk down the street with blood soaked clothing. One of the rules that Emetrius had established is that she would not come to him unbidden. Tonight she had to break that rule and she was not sure how he would react but she needed to see him. Satisfied that she had not been seen, she left the two lifeless bodies to keep each other company.

***

Emetrius sat alone in his study. Earlier in the month he had sent his minions out to gather more written material from the various temples through out the Assyrian empire. He sat in near darkness with only the light of a single small candle casting its weak glow. Despite that he could see as if the room had 1,000 of the candles. One of the things that he noticed after his transformation was that he could see in the dark as if it were bright daylight. He also, as a result of his transformation, had an eidetic memory. He could recall with painful detail that first night after the assault of Austriel the effects of the sunrise. The pain had dreadful and unbearable. Somehow he had managed to bury himself in the sand only to emerge two nights later. The One with no name had attempted to find him and could only seem to do so when Emetrius would respond to his mental communications. Emetrius did his best to avoid all contact with him until he became aware of a burning desire, a compulsion. Finally he acquiesced to contact. He took to calling him the One because he was not forthcoming with his name. When he had asked about his name, the One said that it was not important. He had been horrified to learn that he was going to have to kill people in order to survive. That went against his very nature and he did the best he could to avoid it. The One simply let him be as the pain became worse. It finally go to be too much to bear and he chose a victim at random. He snapped the young mans neck and did not feel any different.

'I don't understand, I killed him like you said I needed to be free from this pain!' he had lamented.

'I didn't say you had to merely kill people; you need to take their life from them. The end result is death but the means is necessary. You need to drain the life from them. Focus on your teeth.'

'My teeth?'

'Make them turn into fangs like a dog or cat has.'

'How?' Emetrius asked as he realized that his teeth had already changed. He had bitten through his lip.

'Now you need to pierce your victim and consume their blood. Their life is contained in their blood and in that fashion you will add strength to yourself.'

'That's barbaric!' he cried.

'It's necessary Emetrius. Your pain will increase until you do so.'

The One left him at that point and Emetrius dug himself into the sand and hoped to die. Several weeks went by in this fashion and the pain seemed to double in intensity with each passing day. He was going insane as a result. Finally he reached the breaking point and emerged from the sand. Off in the distance, he saw a lone herdsman tending his flock. The man never even saw Emetrius coming up to him. Emetrius bit him on the neck and held his mouth over the wound. The blood squirted into his mouth and he instinctively swallowed. The pain began to subside as the man died in his arms. Because of his eidetic memory he could still see the man's face, frozen in horror as his life left him. Emetrius was changed that night. He cursed what he had become and the manner in which he needed to survive. There was a certain thrill to it as well. He buried the man deep in the ground and went in search of a new victim. He went inside a house and saw a bed with a lone occupant. It was a child of the man he had just killed. When he had been killing him he realized that there had been a bond between them and that was how he knew how to find his way to this house. He beheld the sleeping child and was aware of her mother in the next room. Tears of rage slid unnoticed down his cheeks as he put his hand on the girl's head. The same bond was established as before and he experienced her dream state. He watched her play and became disturbed as her dream turned into a nightmare. The girl opened her eyes and looked at Emetrius and froze that way. Emetrius almost panicked as he realized that the girl had died and he took her life from her. The girl's mother had appeared in the doorway and screamed at the sight of her daughter's lifeless body and the intruder. Emetrius grabbed her and attempted to comfort her. 'I'm sorry. I didn't mean to. I don't know what is happening to me.' He had said as the telepathic bond was established with the woman as well. He was still apologizing as he realized that she was dead as well.

(Emetrius the killer) the Ones voice appeared in his head. From that night forward Emetrius was never the same. He tried to sooth his conscious by only targeting criminals. Murderers, thieves, and such he lived that way for months. He could see each of their faces and he also found it distasteful to live these people's last thoughts with them due to the bond that was created. Most of the time his appearance was so sudden that they didn't know what was happening. They just reverted to their base nature and Emetrius would experience the thrill that they would when they committed their acts of violence. Finally he himself changed so that he preyed on the innocent himself. He would allow them to know what was about to happen and he would experience their fear. Since that was the last emotion that he felt as a mortal, he would savor that because it made him feel as though he was alive. He quickly learned the Egyptian language in this fashion. Weeks turned into months into years. He calculated that he had somehow been transported back in time. How this was possible he was not sure but one thing he was sure of. The blue box had something to do with it. He set about to solve the mystery. Time began to pass and he was no closer to finding out the mystery. Days turned into weeks turned into months and finally years began to pass. He created his first minion quite by accident. He had drained a young boy, no older than 8 years old. This boy had been living on the street, stealing what he could to survive. He had the misfortune of meeting Emetrius. Just as the boy was fading, Emetrius gave the boy of his own life force, thus creating a new vampire (although this term would not be coined for several centuries). He had been overcome with grief that he was able to kill a small child was why he even attempted to save him. He called the boy Robert. Robert was with him for 10 years, always in the form of an 8-year-old boy. Robert always seemed to prey on sympathetic women who would have pity on him. During this time Emetrius grew more and more lonely and cynical. He began to despise Robert and finally one night he took back the life that he had given him. It was not easy and Robert had grown quite strong. Emetrius decided that he would eliminate any minions that he created within 5 years or less. This went on for 32 years. He could not stay in one village for long before the disappearance of the people that lived there would begin to draw suspicion. He was thinking of Elizabeth less and less. He shuddered to think of what she might think of what he had become. He cared less and less for the humans that he preyed on. He came to the point that he would prey on them even if he didn't need to feed at that time. He wandered through out Egypt until he ended up in Kemet. That was when he first saw her. The one who would become Janaline. Her youth and beauty took him to the edge of despair. She made him long for Elizabeth. He allowed her to see him. (He had the ability to make a mortal not notice him.) She was so defiant and full of life. He hated her and yet he loved her. He had no choice but to turn her. It was just a matter of time until he did. He remembered the total lack of fear in her as he took her father right in front of her. She was extraordinary. He remembered that day when he almost killed her. He was resentful to the fact that she was not Elizabeth. He was deep in thought on that night. She had been speaking to him and he did not respond to her. Finally, in a rage, she insulted him. 'Did your Master treat you the way that you treat me!' she had demanded. He would not do that to her again. She had to follow certain rules. Still she would break those rules whenever the opportunity presented itself. He was deep into his research when he became aware of her presence. He was instantly angry with her. Part of him knew that he treated her to harshly but another part of him just didn't care. She was valuable to him and there was a part of him that cared for her. Despite all of that he knew that he was capable of killing her without a thought. He forced down his anger and simply ignored her. She stood attentively waiting for him to acknowledge her. The only sound in the room was the scratching of his goose quill on the parchment that he was writing on. When it became apparent that he would make her stand there all night, she summoned up her courage and said, "Master."

He paused in his writing for a moment and then decided to ignore her, hoping that common sense would prevail and that she would leave before he was forced to punish her for violating the one rule that he insisted that she follow.

"Master I need a moment of your time." She said after several seconds of silence.

He paused once again in his writing and as he did so, a drop of ink fell off of the end of the goose quill onto the parchment. He reached into a small dish and took a pinch of fine sand that he kept nearby for just such an event. With his head still downcast he looked up at her from under his brow. His eyes were glowing red with the anger that he felt. His mouth formed a sneer as he said, "What is it?"

She suppressed a bolt of fear that assaulted her stomach. If she were still human she would have no doubt be nauseous at this point. To a mortal he would appear to be at rest but to her heightened senses he was about to strike.

"I have information about the blue box." She said. With that his entire demeanor changed. It would almost appear that life was returning to his undead body. He stood up and smiled at her.

"What information do you have? Have you seen it?" He asked with obvious excitement.

"There is a merchant that saw it this afternoon in the market place."

His visage darkened slightly as he said, "Is this merchant still alive?"

"Yes Master, he is."

He smiled warmly at her as he said "Take me to him."

***

He was sitting there in the dark, still afraid for his life. That woman that looked at him so seductively seemed like she was going to kill him. He had followed her willingly and had embraced her with the promise of more intimate and passionate activity to follow. It had been a strange day. He was going about his normal business selling pottery that his mother had made when all of a sudden; out of nowhere a large blue box appeared at the rear of his stall. He wasn't even sure that he would have even seen it if he hadn't been reaching for another piece of pottery to sell. He was amazed that a man stepped out of the box with a woman. She had called him Doctor. That memory had came to his mind as he was horrified to notice that his would be lover had transformed into a monster before his very eyes. Her eyes glowed red and her teeth had become fangs. She was about to consume him; he was sure, as he vainly struggled to get away from her. She closed her mouth and her eyes returned to normal as she regarded him. He made a dash to get away from her when she grabbed him and held him without any seeming effort on her part. She had bound him hand and foot and left him. He had begun to hope that he could work the ropes lose when the door opened. He lost all hope and his bowels as well at that point. He began to sob as she had returned with another. She had scared him and the creature that she brought with her terrified him beyond reason.

"Please…please" was all that he was able to get out when Emetrius grabbed him. His visage changed to that of a monster. Even Janaline was chilled as she beheld him, as he no longer even resembled a human being. She herself had no trouble reading the thoughts of others as when she had been transformed she became telepathic. All of her ilk was telepathic to a certain degree. She could read the thoughts without any effort. The same was not true of her master. Emetrius could not read his thoughts without linking their minds together. Emetrius was empathic; he could sense the emotions of others, nothing more. He began the dark transformation of this man to force the information from him. His victim's pleas fell onto deaf ears. He recalled the events of the afternoon, the sudden appearing of the blue box through the man's eyes. Where the man had not taken notice of most of the events, it was as if he chose to forget them after they occurred. It was as if he had been compelled to forget as if his perception was altered. Interesting. He learned that the man in the blue box was called simply The Doctor. Emetrius broke contact and let the man slump to the floor. The man was still begging, albeit for a different reason now. The transformation was beginning and he wanted more. The man was becoming a vampire. Emetrius looked at Janaline and simply said, "Finish him." Without a backwards glance, he left. Janaline looked watched him go and pondered for a moment what he meant about finishing him. The man had risen to his feet and grabbed her in an embrace, almost as if he was trying to make her his first victim. She regarded him with dark mirth, and the she tore open his throat and finished him.

***

Emetrius was at the market place where the blue box had appeared. He was walking back and forth trying to determine why the Doctor had chose to appear there and what he may have been looking for. He became aware as Janaline approached him.

"Did you finish him?" he asked her.

"Yes."

"Where is he now?"

"I buried him deep underground."

"You didn't feel that he could have been valuable then?" he asked her with a hint of malice.

"I feel that his value had ended Master. You saw from him what I saw."

"So you took my instruction to finish him and an invitation to consume him?"

"I was not sure what he would have became if he had received the dark life from both of us. Do you?"

He regarded her with cold cruel eyes. She tested his patience and he constantly had to be on guard around her as her power of mind reading was intense and growing stronger. He had rapidly decided to test that theory when he begun the transformation of that man. He guessed, correctly it seemed, that she would indeed consume him and the dark life that he had deposited in him. She was indeed growing powerful and he was not sure if he could easily control her any longer.

"I don't what would have happened. Maybe we could test that one day. You have done well this day. Create more of our kind and send them out to look for the blue box. Where ever it appears I want to know about it. You have done well today Janaline. I give you this in return." He said as he took her in a gentle embrace. He doubled her strength and in doing so, earned her loyalty. As an unintended side effect, he could no longer completely block her from his mind.


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

The T.A.R.D.I.S.

The T.A.R.D.I.S. is an incredibly complex piece of machinery. Any piece of technology that is capable of time travel it in itself nothing short of miraculous to say the least. Any society that can create such technology has to be incredibly advanced. Most societies that begin to develop technology of that magnitude will destroy themselves long before they can master the intricacies of space travel much less time travel. The Time Lords managed to do both. They were, after all, time lords. Each T.A.R.D.I.S. is unique. Most time travel devices will only allow its users to go back and forth through time. They will by nature also allow the users to move though space as well due to the fact that the universe is in constant motion. What makes a T.A.R.D.I.S. unique to time travel is its ability to keep the flow of time constant. This allows the user great latitude in how they interact with events. It could be said that when a T.A.R.D.I.S. enters a timeline, that it was always suppose to be there and therefore fulfills rather than disrupts history. The Time Lord that operates a T.A.R.D.I.S. has a telepathic link with it and instinctively "knows" how events are supposed to transpire. A T.A.R.D.I.S. can be considered "alive" and is often treated as such by its "owner". Most of these machines are grown rather than constructed. They change their inner dimensions as well as the ability to change their outer appearance. Most if not all of them were destroyed in the Time War. The Doctor has the only known one left. When he acquired his, it was already old and obsolete. Even though they are grown rather than constructed, they would still have manufactured components. Most of them would have smooth, symmetrical components that would insure a smooth operation. The Doctor's T.A.R.D.I.S. was different. When Gallifrey was still in existence, most Time Lords would have opted to scrap such an old machine but not the Doctor. The fact that a telepathic bond is developed between the two, the Doctor allowed his T.A.R.D.I.S. to link with him as well. He would replace components that would wear out with what ever was available. To say that the Doctor was eccentric was the epitome of understatement. Even though the T.A.R.D.I.S. was old and obsolete, it still harnessed the time vortex deep within itself, in its heart you could say. No one looked into the heart of the T.A.R.D.I.S. and came away unaffected. The Doctor himself would not look into the heart of the T.A.R.D.I.S. Those who did were affected in strange and unusual ways. One became the Bad Wolf but we are getting ahead of ourselves in this story. Despite the ability of the T.A.R.D.I.S. to keep time and space from being disrupted it was not perfect in that regard. Most events would work themselves out over a period of time no matter the size of the disruption because one individual usually was not capable of a disruption that would cause history itself to come unraveled. There are exceptions. The T.A.R.D.I.S. is capable of warning its operator that such an event has taken place and it is up to the operator to put things back in order. Such an event took place in 1888 when an ordinary human male named Nigel Brown was transported back in time to Egypt in 1000 BC where an extraordinary event took place that should have never happened. The T.A.R.D.I.S. did in fact attempt to inform the Doctor to such an event taking place but the Doctor was otherwise occupied.


	6. Chapter 5

Chapter 5 Changes

Athens 243 BC

Janaline was walking the streets of Athens, looking for prey. She had become very particular as to what kind of people that she would prey on. She preferred to prey on those who would prey on those weaker than themselves. She relished the role reversal as these would attempt to make her a victim. She enjoyed their anger and fear as they would become her prey. Sometimes out of necessity she would prey on the innocent. It was her nature to view humans as nothing more than a source to satiate her hunger and nothing more. Over the centuries she had developed an ambition to rule over these people, however, her master did not seem to share this desire. She had become adept at reading his thoughts or so she thought. There were certain things that she could not discern no matter how hard she tried. Every time that she probed into his mind to see what his ambitions were she would see through his eyes, an image of her coming up out of the ground. It was a memory that she remember all too well. She still harbored bitterness there because of that but then she realized that Emetrius seldom let his minions exist beyond fifty years. She was unique because she has lived 675 years since her transformation to a vampire. She relished the power that came with such an advanced age. Over the years she had learned from her master about the others. The nameless one, Death, Nooroo, Austriel and Emetrius were the first vampires. They became what they were by a different means than all the others. The nameless one, Nooroo and Austriel all had several minions that were spread throughout the land. Only Death seemed not to have created any minions. It would seem that Death was the first one to have become a vampire. It was the nameless one that seemed to have any control over him. She had asked why he was referred to as the nameless one and the answer that she got was that no one knew his name and he never revealed it. It was he who had a grand scheme to control not only all of the vampires but the world in general. Janaline shared that viewpoint. It would seem that her master didn't. Exactly what his ambitions were remained a mystery for now.

***

Emetrius was in his subterranean lair, working on his latest project. There were fourteen marble statues there with him and he was working on the fifteenth. One could look at the first one and could barely make out the fact that it was supposed to be a woman. Because of his eidetic memory, he could remember every curve and contour of Elizabeth's face. He spent decades perfecting his sculpting so that with each statue, his technique improved. His last two efforts yielded statues that were so lifelike it would seem that they would come to life at any moment. The most recent one that he was working on was a moment that he remembered when Elizabeth was caught in a moment of pure joy. Her face was full and bright with a laughing smile. He was caught up in the memory.

***

"Nigel, what are you doing?" Elizabeth asked.

"Nothing." He had said as he thrust his hand into his jacket pocket.

"What are you hiding there?" she had asked with mock suspicion. When he didn't answer, she had grabbed hold of his hand.

"No!" he said as she began to wrestle with him.

"Let me see!" She demanded. 'Nigel Brown if you don't let me see what you have in your hand I will never forgive you." She crossed her arms and tried to give him an angry look.

"Never?" he asked playfully.

"I'll show you!" she said as she grappled with him. They both fell into the grass and rolled around laughing.

"Elizabeth Jones you will ruin your dress if you continue carrying on like that." A voice came from the street.

Both Elizabeth and Nigel looked up to see the face of the Jones family butler, James Stevens. They both quickly rose to their feet as Stevens looked upon them with stern disapproval.

"I'll see you later Nigel." She said as she kissed him on the cheek. She walked towards the butler when she turned and looked at him with such joy in her face.

***

It was the same face that was staring back at him now. He has immortalized it in the marble that he was carving. It amazed him that he could remember it so vividly. He paused in his work to go to a small chest that he had hidden. He opened it and removed a diamond ring. It was this that he was hiding in his pocket that day. It had been his grandmother's ring. It had been two days later when his entire existence had been changed. He had lamented his loss until he realized that he hadn't really lost her per se. It had taken several years for him to work it out but what was in his past was in a far distant future. He was aware of the nameless ones plan for world domination and he was not the least bit interested. It was true that he enjoyed the power that being a vampire brought but that was not the existence that he wanted. He worked out a plan to change all of that. It was a secret that he kept deep in a closely guarded part of his mind. He allowed Janaline's probes into his mind to help him develop his defense against the nameless ones telepathy. The nameless one constantly attempted to make contact with him. He wanted to gather all of the original five together to put a plan in motion but Emetrius balked at that. He only wanted to be with Elizabeth and he was going to go through great lengths to do so. He also realized that it was going to be 2,000 more years to put his plan into motion. He was going to prevent himself from ever entering that cursed blue box. Unless he could find that box before then and force the one known as The Doctor to take him back to that time in 1888 AD. He put the ring back into its hiding place when he became aware of Janaline probing his thoughts. He had to admit to himself that she was getting better at reading his mind and he needed to be ever more vigilant at keeping his secret…wait something is wrong. Janaline was in great danger.

***

Janaline was still looking for prey when she attempted to read her masters thoughts again. She could instinctively sense that he was thinking about what he kept secret and she was focused on trying to ascertain what that secret was. She had turned down an alleyway to track down the man that she had been absent mindedly stalking when he turned to face her. What she saw chilled her. It was not a man that she had been stalking but another vampire. It was the vampire known as Death. He opened his mouth in a silent scream and then crouched before her. Out from his clothing he produced a long slender blade. As she was getting ready to defend herself, he attacked with such speed that even with her preternatural reflexes she could not completely avoid the blow. He had stabbed at her heart but she was able to turn and so that the blade didn't pierce her heart but still the blade went completely through her. She closed her fist and struck him so hard that he flew into the stone wall of the building behind him cracking the stone. He recovered so quickly that she was unable to fend off his second blow. Once again she managed to avoid being stabbed though the heart but the blade still went through her again. Her blood was now flowing from both of the wounds that he had inflicted. If a normal human had caused these injuries they would be superficial but due to the fact that another vampire was doing it, caused these wounds to become much more dangerous to her. He began to feed off of her life energy even as she struck him harder. He flew several feet through the air as she staggered and fell to her knees. Immediately he was on her again stabbing her again and again. She felt her life fading from her as he raised his blade for a killing stroke. Out of desperation she grabbed him in tight embrace and sunk her fangs into his neck. She felt his blade go though her heart but she had begun to drain his life force from him. Even as she should have been dying she felt his strength enter her. She forced her way into his mind and saw nothing but chaos there. She saw another female vampire instructing him to take Janaline as his own. In a desperate frenzy he stabbed her again and again but to no avail. She drained him of his life essence as she consumed his blood. His power became hers and her wounds healed. Finally his thrashing stopped and he sagged to the ground. She let him slip from her grasp and he withered and turned to dust before her. She could still feel the pain of the wounds that he had inflicted and then she became aware that she was not alone. She turned and looked at Emetrius.

"Are you alright?" he said with genuine concern in his voice.

"I can feel his power in me now. I can feel his strength." She said to him.

"He was a primitive human before he had been changed." Emetrius began. "He was a cave dweller and had been a vampire for at least 1500 years before the nameless one found him."

"I can feel the primal energy that compelled him. Death was an appropriate name for him."

{That's right. Death was an appropriate name for him as I named him.}

Both Emetrius and Janaline turned to see the nameless one approaching.

I told you that this one was going to be trouble, you should have let me kill him that night. said Austriel.

[Come now, Death was little more than an animal and you both should know that.] Said Nooroo.

{He was one of us and this impudent wretch took it upon herself to try to become one of us!}

You take the wretch and I will take her master. Austriel said as she approached Emetrius. This one is pathetic as he doesn't even relish the power that courses through his veins.

[Austriel I think that you underestimate him.]

We shall soon find out won't we? she said as her eyes glowed amber.

{I will take care of this one; you stand back and watch Austriel.}

What happened next surprised everyone. Emetrius leapt forward and grabbed Austriel as she uttered an inhuman screech. He picked her up and used her as a weapon and swung her and struck the nameless one sending both him and her flying. Nooroo grabbed Janaline and took her away from the melee that had just erupted.

[Run!] He told her and he pushed her away from the combat.

Both the nameless one and Austriel quickly recovered and both moved to attack Emetrius. He fought them both with a fury that neither expected of him. He had grown more powerful than either had counted on. As one would draw life from him he would draw if from the other. Nooroo simplify watched from a distance. Janaline went a distance and then entered Nooroo's thoughts and watched the battle though his eyes. The three combatants looked demonic as they fought. Emetrius held up against the constant onslaught but could not keep fighting them both off. It began to wear on him as the both were able to bring their life draining attack against him simultaneously. He sank to his knees as the both moved in to bring the combat to an end. What happened next was a surprise to the victors. As Emetrius should have perished, he simply turned into a vapor before their eyes. Austriel screamed with hatred and rage and the vapor began to move away. She tore franticly at it as it moved along the street until it reached a small hole. The vapor sank into it and in a rage; she began to hammer at the paving stones on the street. The stones began to break. She would have attempted to dig her way into street itself if Nooroo and the nameless one didn't pull her back. She cried out in rage again.

[The sun is rising and it is time for us to get to shelter Austriel.]

She allowed herself to be drawn away. None of the three saw or cared that several sets of mortal eyes watched them as they went. The nameless one turned and looked at the hole into which the vapor sank.

{Impressive,} he said as he turned and walked away.

***

Janaline rushed to her shelter and immediately probed for her masters thoughts. She was able to pick them up as she realized that he was unconscious but alive. She caught a glimpse of a human female in a strange city. She picked up the name Elizabeth. Then she was forced out of his mind and left to ponder a mystery that had grown deeper.


	7. Chapter 6

Chapter 6: The Doctor

From the Watcher

Up to this point in our narrative we have been focused on the workings of Emetrius and the other vampires that exist. The reason for that is simple. From Emeritus's point of view events transpire from a to b to c and so forth. With the exception of his abrupt arrival in 1000BC Egypt, that is exactly how events transpire. That is how the entire world, in which Emetrius finds himself in, functions. The present rolls into the future and becomes the past. Something only to be remembered never reclaimed. These rules do not apply to the one known as the Doctor.

Sunday, November 4, 1888

London England

There was combat taking place in the tunnels of the London Underground. The combat was extremely furious to the point where the combatants did not notice the arrival of the TARDIS. When the TARDIS had finished rematerializing, the door opened up and out came the Doctor and Rose Tyler.

"You owe me fish and chips Doctor." Rose said playfully as she tugged on the Doctors arm.

"Fish and chips it is." The Doctor said when an unearthly wail came from down the tunnel.

"Doctor!" exclaimed Rose and the Doctor pushed her up against the door of the TARDIS. "What was that?"

"I don't know Rose, why don't we find out?" he asked her with a smile breaking out across his face, dispelling the mild fear that had appeared on hers. The smile was short lived when a second wail came from down the tunnel. This time it was more like a scream followed by ground shaking impact. There was a brief moment of silence when another scream came followed by a series of ground shaking impacts. Then a dust cloud came from down the tunnel and small pieced of debris skittered to a halt near their feet.

"Doctor," Rose began only to be silenced by the Doctors upraised hand. Without a word, the Doctor raced down the tunnel and after a moment, Rose followed. They raced down the tunnel for several hundred yards when they came to the site of a tunnel cave in. The open sky was visible from the roof of the tunnel. There was a pile of loose stones in the center of the tunnel. It exploded in a shower of loose stones knocking the Doctor on his back just as Rose arrived on the scene. In the middle of the melee was a figure dressed in flowing black robes and had clasped in its grip was a blond man dressed in the contemporary fashion of the period. The black robed figure emitted an ear piercing screech as it took the man by the throat and spun him around and slammed him against the tunnel wall with such force that more of it came down in a heap. The hood of the robe fell away from the creatures head to reveal the features of a woman. Her features were contorted with rage and hatred as she advanced towards the man that she had surely must have killed. The man sprang forth and wrapped her up and began to grapple with her. She shrieked that unearthly earsplitting wail and then he violently threw her up and out the hole in the ceiling. At first glance, it would seem that the man was human but his visage quickly dispelled that notion. His eyes glowed amber and he had fangs protruding from his mouth. The veins in his face and neck were rope like and his skin was color of a corpse. His eyes briefly locked with Roses and then he turned his attention towards the hole in the ceiling and he tensed as to leap through it. Time seemed to slow as his attention returned to Rose once again and the demonic visage was replaced by an ordinary human face. He had an incredulous look on his face as he looked at Rose. The moment was broken when the Doctor sat up and put on his glasses. The Doctor and the man looked at one another for several seconds when the latter seemed to recognize the Doctor. His visage changed from incredulous to rage and hatred in a heartbeat. The demonic visage was back and he hissed like a cat.

"Doctor!" he said with a voice that seemed to resonate from within him. He bolted forward, arms outstretched towards the Doctor when a very large stone statue crushed him on the floor. The black robed woman was back. She began to savagely attack the figure that was pinned under the statue. Rose was spellbound by the battle that now seemed to include the Doctor and herself. She was caught unaware as the Doctor grabbed her by the hand and nearly pulled her off of her feet.

"Run!" he screamed as he pulled her along the entire length of the tunnel. They arrived at the TARDIS and he slammed and locked the door. He raced towards the consol of the TARDIS and activated it. As the center columns began to pulse he looked at Rose with a haunted look in his eyes.

"Doctor, who were those people and how did that man know you?" Rose asked.

"I'm not really sure Rose, but I do know one thing. That should not have happened at all."

***

14 AD

On a bluff overlooking a small village.

Emetrius sat on a bluff overlooking what was left of the village below. The carrion birds were circling in greater numbers in the sky above. There was no sign of life in the small farming village below. The afternoon sun was warm and by looking at Emetrius, one would have thought him to be a blind beggar. His clothing was in rags and his eyes were milky white with no pupil. Emetrius had been sitting there since the sun came up, sending burning sensations on his exposed skin. Emetrius had been aware for some time that he was not alone on this bluff.

"Hello Emetrius," said the One with no name. "How have you been my old friend?"

"Why do you continue this façade that we are somehow friends? I feel nothing but contempt for you."

"Come now Emetrius, I have, on several occasions, saved your life. In fact, Austriel has told me more than once that I myself should kill you, but I have developed and attachment for you so I spare your life."

"My life?" exclaimed Emetrius. "Is that what this wretched existence is supposed to be, a life?"

The One had a brief moment on rage pass over his features but quickly let it subside.

"Emetrius why do you resist what you are? Why don't you embrace it?"

"What I am is a miserable creature and death follows me around like a shroud. It doesn't mean anything."

"You are a magnificent creature now Emetrius, why can't you see that?"

Monday, November 5, 1888

The TARDIS rematerialized in an alley in London in mid morning. The Doctor emerged looking shaken and Rose was right behind him.

"Doctor, wait!" she literally had to yell to get him to stop. "What has come over you Doctor? I have never seen you this way before."

"Rose, do you remember that creature we encountered in the Underground last night?"

"Last night Doctor? It was only five minutes ago."

The Doctor pointed back at the TARDIS and said, "That creature. I am somehow responsible for him. And in his creation that timeline has been contaminated. "

He paused in his narration and pondered a bit.

"Can't you just use the TARDIS to scan the time line Doctor?"

"It's not that simple anymore Rose. I can see a dozen places where time itself has been fractured. I am not sure which one I need to fix. Oh well then, there is no use bellyaching about it here. Come along Rose."

He took off at a fast pace and strode into a book store, in fact the very book store where Elizabeth worked at.

14 AD

Emetrius had a sour look on his face like he had just eaten something that was monumentally bad.

"What make me a magnificent creature?" He asked.

"Emetrius you are ageless, you have a gift. The world could be ours."

"I have no interest in this world." Emetrius said as he swiped his hand in a general arc.

"I have been trying to get you to live the life that you have been given, and yet all are doing is merely existing. Look at how you are dressed, you are dressed in rags when you could have splendor."

"It's of no consequence as to how I dress." Emetrius said. "In fact, it's of no consequence as to what I do either."

"It matters to the thousand people that are lying dead in that village below, Emetrius."

"One thousand fourteen to be exact," Emetrius began, "Let's get facts straight here."

Then his milky white eyes narrowed and his continence changed into something sinister. He said in a low voice, "My name is Nigel."

At that, The One, with his face a mask of rage, grabbed Emetrius around the throat with a bone crushing grip and pulled him close until their faces were only inches apart.

"Listen and listen close, Nigel Brown has been dead for a thousand years and when he died, you were born. Everything that we were dies when we are transformed. It is long time that you…"

Emetrius stopped paying attention at this point because he realized something profound. He and The One both suffered in the daylight but Emetrius found that if he changed his eyes so that he was blind, he was able to exist in full daylight with no real diminishment of his powers. When The One had grabbed him, he should have been able to easily overpower him. His grip was strong and painful around his neck but it wasn't nearly as powerful as it should have been, the realization was like a fireball exploding in his mind. He reached up with one hand and grabbed the hand that held him by his neck and began to squeeze. He could hear the cracking of the bones in The One's wrist and he immediately began to howl in pain. Emetrius took the other hand and grabbed him by the throat. He smiled wickedly as he was going to finally put an end to this pompous, pretentious being. As he applied pressure, the howling ceased and Emetrius was getting ready to decapitate him.

Monday, November 5, 1888

The Doctor walked into the book store and paused to look around for a bit. Rose walked in right behind him. The bookstore appeared to be empty. Finally a tired, weak sounding voice came from underneath the counter and said, "The store is closed and you will have to come back another time." At the last part of that sentence the voice broke into a sob.

Rose and the Doctor both looked at each other and then they both raced behind the counter to find a young woman, whose disheveled look told them both that she had been crying for a long time. She had a revolver in her lap and was holding it like she could raise it to shoot at any time.

"Is your name Elizabeth?" the Doctor asked with kindness in his voice.

"Y-Y-Yes," she stammered out.

"I need to talk to you about a young man that you may know."

With that, she broke down into fresh sobs.

"Elizabeth," said the Doctor, "This is important."

"Don't be so daft Doctor," said Rose as she pushed past him and took Elizabeth by the shoulders. "It's ok; it's going to be alright just tell me what happened."

Finally when the sobbing subsided some, Elizabeth managed to say, "Nigel….Nigel….He's a monster!" She broke down into fresh sobs at this point.

Rose held her and as she was comforting her as she took the gun from her fingers and laid it down. She held her close and the looked down and saw a discarded photograph. She picked it up and looked at it. Her eyes got wide and the color drained out of her face.

"Doctor!" she said as she handed the photograph to him.

The Doctor saw that one of the figures in the photograph was Elizabeth. The other figure was the very creature that he and Rose had seen in the tunnel the night before. He felt a chill wash over him as he began to consider what all this meant.

"Tell me about Nigel." Rose prompted Elizabeth.

As Elizabeth continued to sob, the Doctor kneeled down beside her and said, "Elizabeth, I will not hurt you but I need to see what you saw. I am going to put my hands on your face, it won't hurt and I will stop but I need to see what you saw."

Elizabeth looked up at the Doctor with uncertainty in her eyes and finally nodded.

The Doctor placed his hands on her temples and closed his eyes.

Elizabeth was just getting ready to go and meet Nigel. She was sure that he was going to ask her to marry him tonight and she was filled with an excitement. She paused in her preparations and stared at the mirror without really seeing anything in it. She was so in love with him and she was definitely going to say yes. She raised her hair brush to brush her hair when she saw a figure in the mirror. A small cry escaped her lips as she turned to face the strange intruder. It became apparent that it was a woman in the room with her. She met the strange woman's gaze and was transfixed; she had never known such fear as she was experiencing now.

"Elizabeth," the woman said in an almost inaudible voice.

Elizabeth was unable to respond.

"Nigel," the strange woman said, "is a monster like me."

With that the woman's visage changed to show an almost demonic in the way that it appeared. The woman crossed the distance in the room without seeming to move, and stood face to face with the terrified Elizabeth and said in a voice that wasn't human, "Nigel is a monster just like this."

Elizabeth felt something cold being pressed into her hands. It was an American made revolver. The woman looked down at the gun that she placed into her hands and said, "You should use that on yourself because when I finish with Nigel, I'll be coming back for you. I am going to make you like me. I'll make you a killer." The woman had a cruel smile on her face. Elizabeth raised the gun and pointed it at the strange woman's chest and pulled the trigger. The gunshot was deafening in the confined space of the room. The strange woman didn't even flinch as the bullet struck her. She smiled her cruel smile and then her face returned to a more human visage.

"Don't be afraid dear Elizabeth," she said in a mocking voice. "The bullet that you put in your own head will be far less painful than what I am going to do to you. Oh by the way, Nigel goes by Emetrius these days."

The woman pulled a dark hood over her face and then went to the window and climbed up onto the sill. She turned and looked back at Elizabeth with the same demonic visage that she had a moment ago. "I'll be coming for you," she said and then she was gone.

14 AD

Emetrius was on the verge of a victory that he had waited almost a thousand years for. He was going finally kill the one who had tormented him. This _thing_ had hunted, haunted and just generally aggravated him off and on since that fateful night. What happened next was one of those moments that happen that defines a destiny. Sound travels through the air at approximately 768 miles per hour. Emetrius had learned long ago that the sunlight was extremely painful to his preternatural state. He learned to adapt for this. All vampires learned this and most would simply repress their vampiric nature and become almost mortal to avoid this. This is why he was about to vanquish his tormentor. Emetrius had a different strategy. A vampires hearing is far more sensitive than most bats. Emetrius also noticed that most of the pain was concentrated in the eyes. Emetrius would rely completely upon his hearing and make himself blind for the duration of the day.

Emetrius was about to pull off the head of his opponent, and when that was accomplished he would simply burn the body and that would be that. A sound reached his sensitive ears that caused him to pause and listen. His opponent sensed him pause and began to reassert his own vampiric nature so as to break free from Emeritus's killing grip. Emetrius stood to his feet and turned his head to listen even better. The sound could not be mistaken for anything else. Down in the village below, there was a sound coming that Emetrius heard on the Egyptian desert over a thousand years ago.

Monday, November 5, 1888

The Doctor continued to probe Elizabeth's memories.

Time passed, how much, she wasn't sure. She had been numb with horror and then awoke with a start. The grandfather clock was striking four in the morning. She picked up the gun that had fallen from her grasp. She stared at it dully, unsure what to do. She was afraid of it but she was more afraid of the woman that was surely going to be coming for her. A knock came at her door and she cried out with fear and surprise. The door opened and Nigel walked in.

"Elizabeth?" he asked.

She stared at him and her eyes were wild with terror, she was unable to speak.

"Elizabeth," he began. "What is the matter?"

He took a step forward and he paused as she swung the gun wildly and pointed it at him. He looked at her with shock on his face and he stopped.

She was gulping air now and then she managed to say, "Nigel."

He held his hands out to his side so as to appear not threatening to her. "Elizabeth," he began.

"That woman," said Elizabeth. "She said that you were a monster."

"What woman?"

Elizabeth looked deep into his eyes and said in a barely audible voice, "Emetrius." A name that should have no meaning to Nigel Brown but to the one who stood before her, for just the briefest of instants, she saw recognition and that same inhuman, demonic visage cross his features. If she hadn't been looking at him she might not have noticed. She felt her heart break inside her chest and she managed to fire her gun twice at him before he crossed the room with the same preternatural speed that the mysterious woman had. In an instant he was standing before her and she pushed the gun into his abdomen and fired it again. The wound instantly healed and he batted the gun out of her hands. He grabbed her by the back of the head and pulled her close. He stared deep into her eyes and she felt her vital life force draining. She knew at that moment that she was going to die. Then she felt the draining cease and sadness cross his features.

"Elizabeth," he said in a very sad voice. "I've waited almost three thousand years for this moment and she robbed me of this as well. She robbed us of the life we could have had and now she managed to rob you of the life that I would have given you. You would have never known what I became. This is the fault of someone else, not mine. It was this very night that my journey down this dark path began and I had sought to end it here as well. You need not fear that woman, her name was Austriel and I put an end to her tonight."

He looked at her terror stricken face for several moments and then turned and walked away from her. He paused at the door and said, "I will always love you Elizabeth."

The he walked away.


	8. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Ripples

14 AD

Emetrius released the grip on his opponent's throat only to grasp him by his wrists and began to wildly spin him in a violent circle. When he was at a breakneck, superhuman speed, he released him, flinging him violently high into the air. While is opponent was a ballistic missile, Emetrius himself crouched and that began to shriek in a high pitched voice and then launched himself off of the bluff where he had been sitting. He leapt high into the air and then as he began his decent towards the ground, he tucked his legs close and began to somersault. As he hit the ground he rolled a several times and then he was on his feet, running at a superhuman speed towards the village, shrieking the entire time.

His opponent landed with a thud and since he had not been in his normal form, several of his bones broke with the impact and he howled in pain. He clamped his hands tightly over his eyes and reverted to his preternatural state in order to more quickly heal. In several moments he was able to pursue Emetrius, now able to hear the shrieking off into the distance. He tripped and stumbled many times through out as he was unable to see.

Sunday November 4, 1888

The Doctor was still linked with Elizabeth watching the events of the past evening unfold. Despite the fear that this poor woman had experienced and was experiencing now, she had a great inner strength to her. She would have made a great companion he thought to himself. He was going to probe a bit deeper when a beeping noise began from his pocket. He broke contact with Elizabeth and reached into his coat pocket. He pulled out a device that looked like a PDA and began to look at it. He pressed the screen a couple of times and the beeping stopped. He put on his glasses and looked at the tiny screen with intense concentration. Elizabeth uttered a choked sob.

"Shhh," Rose told her as she clutched her close. "I know that all this seems to be so strange to you but the Doctor will be able to help."

The Doctor was still studying the small screen when all the color drained from his face. Then without a word, he rose to his feet and without a backwards glance he made for the door leaving an astonished Rose in his wake.

"Doctor!" she cried incredulously as she ran to follow him.

14 AD

Emetrius reached the edge of the city and leapt up to the roof tops and paused listening. He could hear the various cries from the carrion birds as they circled above. It was apparent that they were disturbed by him. His shriek that he navigated by was inaudible to the human eat but the birds were apparently bothered. He could hear The One still trying to close the distance, but without the noise that he was making, The One could not see unless he was to suppress his powers again. Emetrius smiled a wicked smile at that. He paused for a moment, listening and then he began to make small shrieks and jumped roof top to roof top searching.

The TARDIS

"Doctor," Rose shouted almost out of breath as she closed the door to the TARDIS.

The Doctor was already at the control console and was entering coordinates that began the center columns pulsing up and down.

"Doctor," Rose asked. "What is going on?"

"The timeline has been corrupted Rose," said the Doctor. "I am headed for Athens to see what has happened but I can't seem to program the TARDIS to land at the time when the event occurred.

He looked up at her and said, "It would seem that the event in question has been time locked."

"Time locked?" she asked.

"It is a way that was used to keep certain events from being changed. Take for example Earth's Second World War. If someone as to go back in time and kill Adolph Hitler before he came into power, it could have disastrous consequences."

"But Doctor, he was responsible for killing over twenty million people!"

"Yes Rose, he was indeed responsible and removing him from history would seem to undo a great injustice, right? Now let's say that out of those twenty million people that didn't die a baby is born in 1941. Now in 1975 that baby rose to power and the Second World War was not prevented after all but it was merely postponed. In this alternate time line instead of twenty million people dying, everybody but twenty million people died. We're talking billions in 1979. That once happened on your planet Rose and my people time locked the history from 1939 to 1945. If preventing those twenty million people from dying it virtually wiped out all of human kind."

"Doctor isn't that a worse case scenario? How does that apply to what's happening now?"

"I'm not sure that it does Rose but someone, somehow managed to time lock the period where history was changed in a significant way and I don't know how."

Nineveh

723 BC

The TARDIS appeared in a back alley and the Doctor and Rose emerged.

"Where are we Doctor?"

"We are in Nineveh a few years after an event that was time locked."

"What is it?" she asked.

"I'm not sure Rose, but let's go talk to the people and find out. We should hurry as it is not safe to be out after dark in Nineveh during this time." He said.

With that, they walked out onto what should have been a bustling city street but what they saw, surprised the Doctor. Instead of a bustling market place it was obvious that the people that they encountered there were scared and broken. At least half of the great city had seemed to have been abandoned.

He was called a Day walker. He had not been completely transformed but his Mistress assured him that he would soon be. There were a few like him and it was there job to mingle in the day light and observe anything out of the ordinary. A pale skinned woman with yellow hair was significant. He didn't appear any different than the other people who were mingling about on the street and he kept his gaze downcast. He saw that she was with a man. The man at first glance appeared as if though he belonged here. They both did and when he tried to look directly upon them, he found it extremely difficult. He looked away for a moment and almost lost them. He really could only seem them clearly out of the corner of his eye. That was strange and they seemed to be attempting to talk with anybody who would listen to them. He was pondering these things when all of a sudden both of them were standing in front of them. He felt an unaccustomed bolt of fear overtake him.

"Excuse me would you be able to tell us where and Inn is that we could get a bite to eat and possibly a place to sleep tonight?" the man asked.

The Day walker was astonished as he could understand this man so clearly. That should not have been possible as he could tell that the pair of them was so different that they should be completely out of place. He was sure that if he didn't have enhanced abilities that they would seem ordinary and completely natural. He muttered an oath under his breath and refused to make eye contact with them and he turned away. The pair of them simply went to someone else on the street and repeated the question to them. He walked into the back alley way when he encountered the blue box.

"Doctor, why are these people so afraid?"

"I have been picking up random bits of conversations and it would seem that people have been disappearing at night. These people are terrified Rose."

The Doctor began walking back towards where he and Rose had left the TARDIS. He was disconcerted to say the least. He pulled out a scanner, and the more that used it, the more puzzled that he became. He activated the controls to the TARDIS and the center columns began their rhythmic ascending and descending in a familiar cadence. He looked up at Rose and upon seeing her troubled face, he smiled at her. He attempted to convey the sense of the carefree attitude that he always had but she knew him well enough to sense that it was merely an attempt to hide the turmoil that had over taken him.

14 AD

Emetrius crouched down and concentrated his preternatural hearing, taking in all the sounds. The flies busily going about their business, the shrieks of the carrion birds, even the skittering of rats tiny claws on the ground. He knew exactly where he was in the city. He heard just the smallest of noises. The whispering of voices, the creaking of a wooden door and he immediately launched himself in that direction.

Athens 251 BC

The TARDIS materialized into a darkened chamber. The door opened up and golden light spilled out. The Doctor and Rose emerged briefly and the Doctor went back inside the TARDIS. He emerged several seconds' later and held two torches. They were in a subterranean chamber. Rose took her torch and shined its beam onto a crude marble statue. It appeared to be a woman. She shined her torch onto a second statue, this one better developed than the first.

"Rose," said the Doctor.

She looked in his direction and saw that he was further along in the chamber. His torch was shining on another statue. This one was a perfect recreation of a woman. They both knew who it was. It was the girl from the bookstore in 1888. It was Elizabeth.

Suddenly, a large wooden container that was in the far reaches of the room burst apart and a very ragged looking, almost skeletal creature came at the Doctor as to attack him. It appeared to be a man and he was attempting to get his jaws around the Doctors throat. Despite its appearance it was incredibly strong. The Doctor, only with supreme effort, was able to fight it off.

"I need to feed, I am so hungry!" the creature cried in a raspy voice.

"I am the Doctor and I can help…" he said before he was cut off.

"I KNOW WHO YOU ARE DOCTOR!" The creature screamed at him. "IT IS BECAUSE OF YOU THAT I HAVE BEEN TRAPPED DOWN HERE FOR SEVEN YEARS." With that, it renewed its attack once again. The Doctor was still able to fight it off when a proximity alarm chimed from within the TARDIS.

The creature began to giggle as if it were insane.

"Now the master knows you're here. She'll reward me and finally I will be free…" Abruptly he was cut off as his entire body suddenly arched in a spasm. Blood began to pour from his ears, eyes and nose as he collapsed face down on the floor. He twitched twice and then was still.

The proximity alarm sounded inside the TARDIS once again and the Doctor paused, still looking at the creature at his feet.

"Doctor!" Rose said.

Without a word the Doctor ran to the TARDIS. Once they were both inside, he closed the door.

"What is it Doctor?"

"There is an event happening about 750 years in the future." He said grim faced. "There has been a massacre."

He activated the controls of the TARDIS and sent it on its way.

Janaline sensed their presence within the chamber the moment the TARDIS had materialized. Her minion had been imprisoned there with the scant hope that he would appear before he perished. A Day walker could survive a decade without feeding before perishing. She used a Day walker as opposed to a fully converted vampire because the Doctor could fight off a Day walker, even a healthy one. His human companion was of no consequence to her. She made her way down to the chamber and sensed with the Day walker, overcome by bloodlust, burst free from his hiding place to attack the Doctor. That wretched creature was about to give away everything when she sent a psychic shock into his mind and caused a fatal hemorrhage. She emerged into the chamber and beheld the TARDIS for the first time.

"A blue box indeed." She said as she watched it dematerialize. The memorized the symbols Police Box with the smaller letters Public Call in between.

14 AD

The Doctor and Rose emerged in the middle of what should have been a busy market place. They were both horrified into silence at the sight that greeted them. Every where they looked, the inhabitants of this village lay dead. Some in bed, some in the middle of the street but they were all dead. The Doctor moved from one corpse to another. He spent several minutes looking and examining each one and none of them, he concluded, should be dead. Rose stood there with her hand covering her mouth at the horror of it all.

"Doctor, is there anything you can do? Is there a way to prevent this from happening?"

"This shouldn't have happened and it has been time locked. I can't even go back to view it…" he paused and then yelled at Rose a single word.

"RUN!"

At dusk the prior evening, Death had come to this village. Emetrius slipped in and began to prowl the streets. He reached out and felt the life force of a few of them at first. He no longer needed to touch them to drain it, to feed upon it. He was only going to take a few at first. It was exquisite to absorb them. He almost felt as if he were still among them as he did so. The very essence of what and who they were fed into his very being. He knew that he needed to feed to maintain his strength but he used to have to touch them, to drink their blood was a very efficient way of draining the life from them. Then as time progressed, he learned that he merely had to touch them and now, his power was such that he merely needed to be in close proximity to them. He concentrated and let his mind seek out the life forces of the village inhabitants and drew it absorbed it like a sponge would water. He hadn't intended to take them all but ended up doing so nonetheless.

Emetrius raced though the streets, kicking up dust and debris as he madly attempted to reach his target. He would soon be reunited if he could only capture the Doctor and his infernal machine. He had heard the Doctor's cry of warning to run as he closed the final gap. He could hear the TARDIS begin its now familiar noise as it began to dematerialize. He slammed into it full force rocking it. Immediately he allowed his eyes to become normal as he watched it fade from view. Liquid fire poured into his eyes and the sun burned him and the pain was beyond imagination. His rage allowed him to endure it and he screamed his rage as the TARDIS faded from view.

His adversary reached the area of conflict a few minutes later but there was no one to greet him but the dead.


	9. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Broken Circle

London England

November 23, 1963

Emetrius walks down a dark quiet street in London, seemingly oblivious to the chill in the air. He wears a light coat and worn thread bare clothes. He has taken to wandering the streets as he is devoid of purpose. He had obsessively pursued a goal for close to three thousand years and now that he had been deprived of that goal, he really had no purpose or function to his existence. All the other vampires that walked the earth with him viewed him as dangerous and that suited him fine. They lacked the courage to attempt to deal with him alone and they lacked the cohesion necessary to deal with him as a group. All vampires had a long reaching goal that was complicated at best. He was an enigma to his own kind as he had had a simple goal and that was to be reunited with Elizabeth. It would seem that only he and his oldest creation, Janaline knew that he had inadvertently been transported back in time and then became what he was. He loathed his existence and yet he wasn't quite sure how to end it. He wasn't even sure if he could. He thought back to Elizabeth. She was his one, true desire still after all this time. She had been gone from the world for almost fifteen years now and the world was a sorrier place for it in his opinion. He thought about that fateful day when all of his dreams crashed. It was an historic day in the grand scheme that was his existence. An American president had said that December 07, 1941 was a date that would live in infamy but November 04, 1888 was a true date to live in infamy. It was that date when he should have proposed to Elizabeth. It was on that date when he was transported back in time by that wretched Doctor. It was on that date when Austriel attacked him and was subsequently dispatched. It was the day that Nigel Brown died. It was the day that Elizabeth found out about his true nature. He thought back to the last time that he saw and spoke with her.

London England

October 12, 1928

Emetrius had been traveling the world after losing Elizabeth. He had attempted to fill the void in his existence by any means available to him. He had, not long after losing Elizabeth, to make himself a companion. He took a young woman from her bedroom while she had slept. He had transformed her and she, for a time seemed to love him. It would seem that she could fill the void in his existence quite well until one night; she suddenly came to despise him. He questioned her about what had changed and she relentlessly attacked him. He had been forced to destroy her. She had been with him close to thirteen years. She was joyous to learn that she would never age. July 03, 1903 he left England and traveled the world. He learned all he could about the human race. He walked among them and viewed them as little more than cattle but during this time he discovered that he could influence the humans that interacted with. He could project a sense of friendliness in them insomuch as they would be inclined to do whatever he wanted them to. He could influence them to part with their wealth, cause them to attack those that they were close to. He could even cause them to violate their most closely held beliefs. He couldn't quite coerce them into taking their own lives but he could cause them to murder for him. It was a skill that the other vampires had to a certain degree but not like his. When the Great War broke out he discovered just how depraved the human race could be and how corrupt their governments were. So many lives had been thrown away for nothing it seemed. He had participated in it, walking the battlefields of France, feeding on soldiers of both sides. He remembered when an artillery shell had landed about a meter away from where he had been standing. It had actually detached his right arm. All he had to do was take the severed limb and hold it to the stump and concentrate for a moment. It was like it never had happened. He had influenced an entire platoon of German soldiers to surrender their position and throw down their weapons and stand up on the edge of their trenches. They had all been cut down by machine gun fire. It had been an exercise in futility on his part. He had just wanted to see if he could do it.

He used his power now in seeing Elizabeth. Her father had put her into an insane asylum after that fateful night. She had been kept isolated and on medications night and day. He had been to see her before but never spoke to her. He had approached and immediately charmed his way into seeing the director of the facility. He had used a good portion of his ability on the director and now the director viewed him as favorably as he would have an old family acquaintance. He had taken him to the cell where Elizabeth was kept and allowed him to enter. He was always sad to see her here. She was the only human that he any sort of compassion on. She looked at him with confusion for a moment.

"Nigel?" she said.

"Yes Elizabeth, it is me."

She had stood up from her bed at that moment and looked at him with more confusion then her face twisted into a mask of rage and fear.

"You're not Nigel, you're a monster! You killed him!" she shrieked at him and then began to pummel him with her fists. He did nothing to stop her from doing so and merely stood there and allowed it to occur. She was only fifty eight years old but looked more like eighty. Finally he feared that she would expire before he had a chance to speak with her. He reached out with his special ability and began to influence her to a more favorable status. She calmed for a moment and then looked into his eyes. He could see the beautiful woman that she once was behind those eyes and then her face darkened again.

"You're a devil," she hissed at him. "Your dark magic has no effect on me. What is it exactly that you want from me? You ruined my life; I wish that I had never met you that day on the street. I have spent so long in this place it is all I know and it is entirely your fault!" she had finished those last words by poking her bony finger into his chest.

"I only wanted to see you and ask why, or more precisely how, you came to the knowledge of the misfortune that happened to me. How exactly did you know?"

"That woman came to me and explained what you were. She explained how you were a monster."

"What woman?" he asked gently.

"What difference does it make? Can you change what happened? Can you fix it?"

"I could have made you happy. I could have cherished you. You wouldn't be here now."

"Oh but I am here you devil! It's because of you that my life has been robbed of me. They give me drugs to calm me and yet my curse is to keep my sanity."

"I still love you Elizabeth. It is my curse to love you and never have it returned again." He said as he turned to go.

"Emetrius." She said.

He stiffened at the use of his name.

"If you truly love me, end this for me."

"I can get you released from here if you would like."

"For what purpose; can I have a life now? Can I marry and have a family?"

"Elizabeth," he began.

"No! You end this for me now. Take my life as it is unbearable for me to live it now!"

"I will do as you ask but I need to know, when did she tell you about me. This is important to me."

"I will never forget. It was at 8:45 pm on November 4, 1888. I was going to be fashionably late for you when she came."

"Are you absolutely sure?" he asked.

"As sure as I am that you are here almost forty years later and you have not aged one bit."

There was something that bothered him but he could not place it. He paused for a moment and could not quite put the pieces together. He looked at her as she looked at him. She had wanted him to take her life and she seemed sincere. As he looked at her, a death had occurred, his own to be precise. Nigel Brown passed away at that moment. He looked at her with the eyes of Emetrius for the first time. She was merely human and unless he was going to make her like himself, she would never, could never have a future with him. He turned and walked away for the last time. He left instructions that she was to receive the best possible care but never to be left unattended. He walked out of the asylum and never went back.

London England

November 23, 1963

"Oi, Mate, come here!"

Emetrius turned and looked as a pair of toughs was calling him over. He could immediately sense that they were predators and that they had identified him as prey. He didn't do anything but look at them. If they were smart, they would walk away.

"Can you believe this bloke?" on of them said to his partner. "When I bloody say come here I bloody mean come here, now!"

Emetrius merely stood there gazing on them, making no move to walk in their direction.

"This bloke must be deaf or something," said the taller one as he approached Emetrius.

"Yeah I think he is," said his partner as he maneuvered around to stand behind Emetrius. The taller one attempted to intimidate him by walking right up to him and attempting to use his height. He was at least eight inches taller than Emetrius. He was a bit disconcerted by the fact that Emetrius did not show any fear, merely standing there and returning the others gaze.

'It's a shame what happened to the American President yesterday isn't it?" said the taller tough.

"Is it now?" Emetrius replied.

"Oi he speaks!" said the tough standing behind him.

"Bag it Charlie!" said the taller tough. "Me and this here gentleman are going to have a conversation. You know, where we become real pals. Me and this bloke, pals. Now tell me now, you don't seem to be too concerned about the American President now do you?"

"I don't much care about Sir Alec Douglas-Home either, so what's your point?"

"Who the bloody hell is that?" asked the taller tough.

"He is the sitting Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. You mean to tell me two debonair gentlemen such as yourselves have never heard of him?" Emetrius asked with a touch of mirth in his voice.

"I know who he is!" Charlie exclaimed.

"The Russians killed the American President because he stood up to them and since you seem to be so smart what is it do you think is going to happen to you if you keep standing up to me?" asked the taller of the two toughs. "Now give me your wallet and watch."

Emetrius was thinking about how tense everyone seemed to be when the world was on the brink of nuclear war. It was the one thing that humans could do that would cause a vampire to pause and think. In fact he could remember the last time a conclave was called for and he actually had attended.

Buenos Aires Argentina

July 20, 1945

Emetrius was hunting this night. It was just shortly after midnight and he was in the mood to shake up the city. He was going to claim a few victims tonight to shock this city out of its complacency. He had planned on doing it in such a way as there could be no doubt that the people that he would claim tonight would be murder victims. In reality he only needed to hunt about once a week and his needs would be satiated but it was a delicacy to take a victim a night. To take twenty was excessive but that is what he liked to do. As he was stalking in the chilly July evening he became aware that he himself was being stalked. Not by a human predator but another vampire. This vampire had to be an older one. All thoughts of a killing orgy left him at once as he began take in stride the fact that another vampire would stalk him. It was going to cost this creature more than he or she bargained for. He paused in the shadows and scanned around, taking in the surroundings. He noticed his stalker on a rooftop across the street. Immediately upon noticing, he merely jumped and landed right in front of the newcomer.

"Parlay," said the newcomer. "I would speak with you and then you can do with me as you wish Master Emetrius."

"Who are you?" Emetrius asked as his was curiosity piqued.

"Who I am is unimportant but it is who sent me to you. She is your first, and to the best of my knowledge, only surviving offspring. Janaline is my master and I serve her. She sent me to you knowing quite well that you may just kill me. There is to be a conclave, and this one is different. I am quite aware that you don't attend these events but this one is different. The humans have developed a technology that could very well destroy us and them both. I have transport available not far from here and the conclave is set to begin at sunset tomorrow evening. It is at an undisclosed location in Brazil but I insisted that they give me a map to it. I now put myself at your mercy."

Emetrius could sense the fear coming from a creature that should very well inspire fear in others. He appeared to be middle aged and a scholar but the way he conducted himself told Emetrius that he would be formidable.

"Do you have a name or are you like that annoying vampire that I have taken to calling Bob." Emetrius asked with a dead pan expression.

"My name is Arthur," said the newcomer.

Emetrius looked at Arthur for a full minute before finally asking, "You said you had transport available?"

Arthur looked at him and finally asked, "Are you not going to kill me?"

"Not tonight Arthur, Janaline isn't always right. Lead the way."

Deep in the Brazilian Jungle

July 21, 1945

Emetrius arrived on the scene with his escort Arthur shortly after sunset. He saw at once that there were four chairs set up. Janaline, Nooroo and the one that Emetrius called Bob all occupied one of them. Janaline rose as he came up and gestured to the seat next to her.

"Master Emetrius I am so glad that you could make it. Please sit down we have a lot to discuss."

Emetrius ignored her and stepped around her.

"Hello Bob. It's been a while since we last spoke with one another." He said in a mocking tone of voice.

"I have told you on many occasions that I do not want to be addressed by that name.'

"Why not Bob? You have never told me your name Bob. What, exactly should I call you Bob?"

"I grow tired of your insolence!" he said rising to his feet.

"Is that so Bob?" Emetrius asked as he stepped forward. "What do you suggest that I call you then…Bob?" All humor had disappeared from Emetrius's voice.

"You can call me Master like all the others."

Emetrius laughed aloud at that. "There is no chance of that happening Bob. Do you remember a little altercation between you and I say one thousand nine hundred thirty one years ago? I was about to pull your head off but I got distracted. I would love to finish what we started. What say you and I have another go Bob?"

Nooroo and Janaline stepped in between them as numerous minions all rose to their feet.

"Master there is no time for this." Nooroo said to the One.

"Oh come on now Nooroo, why do you encourage him by calling him Master?" Emetrius asked with exasperation in his voice.

"Your Excellency's please," Arthur interrupted. "We have very important and pressing business to attend to."

All four of them turned and looked at Arthur. Janaline had a dark look on her face.

"I say there Janaline, your offspring seems to have real courage," Emetrius said. "And he's quite right. Let's get to the business at hand so that I can get back to conducting my business.

Emetrius sat down in the closest chair and looked up at his scowling counterparts.

"Oh!" he said quickly standing up. "Was that your chair Bob?"

"Sit!"

"What ever you say there Bob," Emetrius said as he sat back down. The other three took their seats.

"Arthur?" Janaline said as she beckoned him over.

"As you wish Master," Arthur said as he walked in front of them. "Five days ago in the New Mexico desert, the United States government has successfully detonated an atomic bomb…"

"As in a nuclear reaction?" Emetrius asked.

"Yes quite right a nuclear event Master Emetrius. The test was carried out…"

"This is why you summoned a conclave Bob?" Emetrius asked incredibly. "What does that have to do with us?"

"Master, if you were to quit interrupting and let Arthur finish his presentation we could get on with the implications to our way of life." Janaline said.

"Arthur, does this device emit large quantities of ultra violet radiation?" Emetrius asked.

"They would appear to do so at the moment of detonation but…"

"I am only concerned about the amount of ultra violet radiation that they would emit. That is the only thing that can damage us." Emetrius said.

"We are still gathering information on these…" Arthur said before he was interrupted yet again.

"I'll be leaving now." Emetrius said.

"Damn it Emetrius sit down!" Nooroo shouted at him. Emetrius kept walking away from the conclave.

"You're the most damnable creature Emetrius!" Nooroo shouted at him.

"A pity that you have taken to name calling Nooroo," Emetrius called over his shoulder as he walked away.

London England

November 23, 1963

The knife entering into his chest snapped Emetrius out of his reminiscing. As the taller tough pulled out his knife, Emetrius reached out and took him by the wrist. He reached out with his mind and took Charlie's life force and he collapsed in a heap in the sidewalk. He squeezed until the knife fell out from the fingers of the tough standing in front of him. He squeezed a little more and suddenly the tough dropped to his knees.

"Oh and the knife wound healed up the moment the blade came out of my chest." Emetrius said.

He reached down and picked up the blade and held it before the tough's eyes.

"Poor Charlie," Emetrius said. "Do you have a name?"

"My name is Robert sir and please don't kill me. I beg of you."

"Oh you stab me in the chest and now you beg for your life? Isn't that ironic? Wait a tick; you said your name is Robert, as in Bob?" Emetrius said with savage glee in his voice. He squeezed until he could hear the bones snapping in Robert's wrist at which point he dropped it.

Emetrius held the knife in his hand, twirling it around as Robert scrambled to his feet and began to run away. He made two steps before the body of Charlie flew through the air and crashed into him knocking him from his feet. Robert fell to the ground screaming trying to crawl away from Emetrius when he reached down and grabbed him by his left foot, squeezing it so that all the bones in his foot broke.

Robert screamed in agony and attempted to crawl away as Emetrius held the knife by its point.

"Where are you off to Bob?" Emetrius called out.

Emetrius jumped and landed on Robert's back. He turned him over and pinned him down.

"Please I don't want to die!" Robert shouted as Emetrius began to methodically push the knife through Robert's chin.

"Hush now Bob, you should feel honored. I usually don't kill with a weapon," said Emetrius as he pushed the knife a little deeper.

There was a muffled scream and blood began to pour out of Robert's nose and mouth as the blade emerged from the top of his head. Emetrius savored this particular kill. He hovered over Robert for several minutes after he had died, savoring the moment.

He got up and went on his way and as he turned the corner, he walked into another police box. He stared at it and all of his good humor at dispatching the two toughs evaporated.

"These wretched things are everywhere. Couldn't that damn Doctor have any better imagination that to disguise that infernal machines as one of these things." He struck the police box with such force that it splintered and then collapsed. He kept walking for a while when he saw an old man walking towards a junk yard.

Wrong place at the wrong time there old timer he thought in his head. He was going to make this one quick. He reached out with his mind and was immediately shocked. He paused and just stared as the old man walking into the junk yard.

"Impossible," he said aloud.

A moment later the unmistakable noise of the TARDIS dematerializing filled the air as Emetrius burst into the junk yard just in time to see the TARDIS fade from view. He stood there looking for several minutes thinking.

The man that walked into that thing was the Doctor. There was no doubt about it. It shouldn't be possible. He needed information and for that he needed to find Janaline.


	10. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Conundrum

London, England

November 23, 1963

Emetrius boarded his flight that would take him to Washington, D.C. He would go there to initiate his contact with Janaline. He was aware that it was going to be extra busy in that particular city with the recent death of the American president. He was led to his seat by an attractive stewardess. Susana was the name on her name tag and she flashed him a professional smile. She offered him a cocktail that he immediately declined as he settled into his first class seat. She retrieved for him a blanket and pillow as he regarded her with a friendly smile of her own. He could see that underneath the pleasant veneer, she was mildly hostile to all of the passengers especially what she regarded the well dressed snob in first class. He was polite enough but he also had an air of privilege and expectation about him; he expected to be well taken care of. She hovered around a bit as he was the only passenger in the First Class section of the aircraft and since he seemed content to sleep; she hoped that she too could sleep away across the Atlantic.

As the plane took off, Emetrius pulled out an expensive pocket watch and noted the time as 7:55pm. The plane began flying a southwesterly heading that would take it towards Southampton and the Isle of Wight. The night was fairly dark with the moon in a first quarter phase in the sky but Emetrius had no trouble seeing as if it were the brightest clearest daylight. His stewardess Susana was sitting in her own seat, settling in for the flight. She has told him to just press the call button if he needed anything and he assured her that he would. Something about the evening's events troubled him. Through his own information network, he had heard about the American president's assassination but it was not common knowledge yet in London. At least it shouldn't have been to a couple of street toughs that preyed on other people. That was somewhat puzzling. Such people usually didn't bother to keep up with local events much less international ones. It was puzzling to say the least he thought as he looked out the window in the darkened cabin.

The TARDIS inside the vortex

"It's like someone is deliberately attempting to disrupt the flow of time itself, it's maddening!" the Doctor cried out in frustration. His hands worked over the controls of the TARDIS in a feverish pitch and information flashed across the display screen. Rose looked on with obvious concern on her face but the Doctor seemed oblivious to it. He was sure that he was missing something important but he was unable to pinpoint exactly what. He noticed that another time lock was about to form so he rushed the TARDIS to its temporal location to try to record the event. The TARDIS lurched violently as it arrived and the Doctor rushed out the doors to retrieve the probe that was launched. He was so focused as to what he was doing that he never noticed that Rose didn't accompany him outside.

New York City, New York

November 23, 1963

Janaline sat at her desk, looking over the daily take of information that was still coming in from her world wide network. In this country, all the news was still about the assassination of John F. Kennedy, from her point of view that was only one piece of news in a world filled with ongoing news. She compiled enormous amounts of information that was transcribed into an enormous amount of tomes, stored in various locations around the world. A device of interest had been developed called a computer but it was still in its development stage. Her sources advised her that one day, such machines could be utilized to store the data the she meticulously collected but she was somewhat skeptical about it. About an hour ago, she sensed that her former master had boarded an aircraft out of London headed for Washington, D.C. Earlier, she had sent him a couple of visitors. She had instructed them to ask him about the recent events in Dallas, Texas yesterday. He could spend months trying to figure it out and it really had no purpose except to amuse her. It was a dangerous game that she played with him, considering that he was still more powerful than she was, albeit not by much.

"Arthur," she said softy.

"Yes Mistress," he said as he walked into her study.

"Pan AM flight number 1183 left London Heathrow bound for Washington at 7:55 pm local time set to land at Friendship International in Baltimore at 11:55 local time. Emetrius is on board that flight. I want to know exactly when it lands and I want to know why he is going to Washington. I would suspect he is coming over to seek me out for some information or another."

Arthur wrote down the relevant information and walked back to his desk. He lifted his phone and made several phone calls and several of his own network contacts were set in place to monitor the incoming flight.

Janaline looked at the clock on her desk and saw that the sun would set in a half an hour. She would go out and hunt and be back in time to see what Emetrius was up to. She was privately amused that Arthur was going to be puzzled as to how she knew that Emetrius was on board that flight before he did. She smiled more at the thought that maybe she knew that Emetrius was going to be on that flight before Emetrius himself did.

Pan Am Flight 1183

November 23, 1963

Emetrius could read from the pilots mind that they were over Newfoundland and were going to head down the eastern seaboard of Canada and the United States. He was eager to get to his destination. Information was churning in his head as it would at times like this. He needed to get more pieces of the puzzle to figure out his strategy. The man known as the Doctor and that accursed blue police box; he was the central figure into what he was and he would have his revenge upon him. It was not possible that the old man that he encountered earlier could be the same person, but somehow it was. It was impossible but he accepted it nonetheless. He knew that the Doctor had something to do with time travel as he himself had been transported into the ancient world. He had encountered the Doctor several times through out the intervening centuries and the man had never before appeared to have ever changed in appearance. He had an ordinary blonde girl with him, Rose Tyler was her name. She only appeared to be ordinary as she would more fall into the realm of extraordinary considering what she had seen on her travels. Small amounts of information had trickled to him from a variety of sources and a larger picture was forming. Tonight's sighting of the Doctor was still burning in his mind. The old man that he saw tonight was the Doctor but this Doctor appeared to be a grandfather with a regal appearance and the Doctor that he knew was a much younger man. He was confused and he could not tolerate that either. Rage was building within him and with it; focus. It was because of the Doctor that he never had his life with Elizabeth. His rage softened a bit as he thought about the last time he saw Elizabeth in that asylum. She had been his sole focus for almost three millennia. October 12, 1928 he remembered the last time he saw her alive.

The TARDIS

Rose Tyler stood with her hand on the consol of the TARDIS with a worried expression on her face. The Doctor had been talking a mile a minute and had barely paused for breath much less stopping long enough to listen to the concerns that she had about what was happening. It seemed that every time he discovered one change to the time line and rushed to examine it, another would appear to occupy his attention. It seemed to Rose that it was like a rat in a maze. Someone was not only manipulating the time line but the Doctor was well. The Doctor ran back into the TARDIS, probe in hand. He tossed it aside with into the pile with all the rest of them. A rather large pile had accumulated. He was chattering incessantly and Rose just stood there staring at him with a somewhat sad look upon her face. The Doctor finally seemed to notice and stopped and walked up to her and took her hand.

"Rose I know what I am doing, I need to stay up with this because as soon as I seem to identify one focal point, another one pops up."

"Doctor I am just worried that you are getting too far into this and not seeing the bigger picture…"

"Rose, I am the Doctor. I am brilliant you know." He said with a crooked smile.

An indicator began to beep on the consol of the TARDIS and the Doctor immediately began to almost frantically work the controls. Rose once again began to frown and unconsciously put her hand on the very spot on the TARDIS control where she had absorbed all the energy of the Time Vortex.

New York City, New York

November 23, 1963

Janaline returned from her hunt and she was still very joyous as to the day's events. She had not enjoyed herself in quite some time and she planned to savor the moment for as long as it was feasible for her to do so. She looked at the clock on her desk and figured that she had just over an hour before the plane landed in Baltimore. She sat down at her desk and then froze there. There was something amiss as her enhanced senses were all going off at once.

"Arthur?" she called to her assistant.

"Yes Mistress," he said walking into her study.

"Is everything alright here? Anything going on that I should know about?"

"Everything is as it should be Mistress. My sources at the airport say that the plane is slightly ahead of schedule and should be landing within the hour."

Janaline looked at Arthur for a moment and then turned to her mind connection with Emetrius. It had all the affect of opening up a blast furnace; such was the power of the rage and anger that she encountered. It was all directed at her.

"Arthur," she said after a moment of hesitation. "Execute the Beta protocol"

"Yes Mistress."

She walked over to a closet and removed a small suitcase. She opened it briefly and looked at its contents. Without another word, she went to the window, opened it and disappeared into the night.

Pan Am Flight 1183

November 23, 1963

Emetrius went over that moment in his mind over and over again. Something about that last conversation with Elizabeth tore at him. He played it again in his mind, careful to remember every detail. 8:45pm she had said. Why was that significant? He pondered it over and over and then he had a sudden flash of insight. All this time he had missed it. It wasn't that time 38 years ago he needed to be concerned about, it was that fateful night in 1888 that he needed to be thinking about. 8:45pm on November 4, 1888 that was the time when he, as Nigel Brown not Emetrius went down into the London Underground to go and see why Elizabeth had not met him like she said that she was going to. 8:45pm on November 4, 1888 was the time when he had been chased into that damned blue police box. 8:45pm was when Austriel had gone and poisoned Elizabeth's mind. He carefully went over that night in his mind but then he had to pause again. He lived that particular night twice. He thought about the second time. He had chased the hateful Austriel into the London Underground that night as she had been chasing Nigel. If he had been chasing Austriel and Austriel had been chasing Nigel, there was no possible way Austriel could have been talking to Elizabeth at that exact time could there be? Was it possible that Austriel used the Doctor's blue police box to go and torment Elizabeth? Unlikely as that would mean that Nigel never could have entered it to go back in time almost 3,000 years to become Emetrius. Now it was theoretically possible that since he was in two separate places that night, Austriel could have been as well. He thought about that particular possibility for several moments before ultimately dismissing it as highly improbable as opposed to impossible. With time travel involved (if it had been possible, all this thought of time travel would have given him a headache) any number of possibilities could have been possible. One more time he walked through the events of November 4, 1888 in his mind and concluded that Austriel was with two separate versions of himself. She had to have been stalking Nigel (strange thinking about himself in the third person like this) and he had been stalking her. Elizabeth had clearly said that a woman who came and had a conversation with her at 8:45pm on the night of November 4, 1888. With a flash of astonished insight, Emetrius was drawn to the conclusion that it was Janaline, not Austriel who visited Elizabeth that night. He sat back in his seat and pondered this highly improbable turn of events. Janaline always had seemed to be fond of him no matter what he had done to her, one of the reasons that he had not destroyed her. He thought about it for a moment longer. If Austriel had been the one to go and see Elizabeth, she would have more than likely killed her outright as opposed to tell her the truth about what had happened to Nigel. Upon coming to that conclusion, his rage began to burn white hot within him.

Unable to control the violent emotions that were surging he sat in his seat and seethed for a moment. All the sleeping passengers on board the aircraft were suddenly troubled in their sleep. Some of them even began to whimper and weep in their sleep. The stewardess Susana was awakened and was immediately troubled and gripped with fear. She could almost hear an audible voice inside her head: go get the captain. She was paralyzed with fear and was unable to move. Then the voice in her head turned into a shout: GO GET THE CAPTAIN! With shaking hands, she lifted up the phone that enabled her to speak into the cockpit.

"Captain, this is Susana, can you please come out here a moment, it is very urgent."

Emetrius got up from his seat and walked up towards the front of the plane. Susana caught sight of him and drew in a breath for a scream and Emetrius reached out with his mind and snuffed out her life-force with about as much effort as it would take to blow out a small birthday candle. The captain walked out and Emetrius grabbed him.

"Captain it is imperative that you divert this aircraft to New York immediately."

"But I…uh…" the captain managed to get out before he was interrupted.

Emetrius pulled the captain close to him and manifested his most terrible and horrible face. "Captain I will not repeat myself and I am rapidly losing patience with you. Divert this aircraft to New York City right now."

To the captain's credit, he controlled his fear and didn't waver in his conviction as he said, "I don't see the point of cooperating with you since I sincerely believe that you are going to kill everyone on board regardless."

Emetrius bared his teeth as his canine's elongated themselves and he was about to bite the captain right on his neck in classic vampire fashion. He suddenly sensed the presence of his treacherous creation Janaline inside his mind. He reached out with his mind and touched the minds of all on board the aircraft, killing them all. The aircraft suddenly lurched in the air and began to dive. Emetrius quickly looked out and saw that they were still over the water. He quickly went to the co-pilot and infused him with some of his own life-force, creating a new vampire in the process. The newly formed vampire attempted to rise from his seat.

"Fly the plane, there will be plenty time to satiate your new cravings. Take us to New York City."

The co-pilot hissed and the plane turned sharply in a new direction as Emetrius reached out with his own mind and sought Janaline with his mind. A connection once made works in both directions. He couldn't terminate the link so he filled his mind with all the terrible things that he was going to do to her when he finally found her.

"Turn the plane slightly to the right." Emetrius said as he tracked Janaline like a fixed point with a compass. He knew that at the moment that she was on a train headed for Philadelphia. He placed his hand on top of the co-pilots head and began to draw the knowledge on how to fly this plane directly from his mind. He had intentions of flying this damn plane right down on top of her and the train.

Two things happened that Emetrius didn't anticipate. As he was forcing his way into Janaline's mind he then forced his way into the co-pilots mind and as a result, all three of their minds were connected. Janaline used the opportunity to cause the co-pilot to dump the planes fuel and now they had only minutes to find a place to land or crash, she didn't care much which. Then, with a brief moment of hesitation; she terminated her link to Emetrius freeing him from her invasive presences in his mind now and forever.

"We are going to run out of fuel in less than a minute." The co-pilot said.

Emetrius could see the New York City lights off in the distance.

"We need to jump." He told the co-pilot.

"I don't think so." The co-pilot said as he caused the plane to go into a dive.

Emetrius made is way to the door of the aircraft as he once again, reached out and touched the co-pilots mind, drawing out his life-force. He then obliterated the door of the aircraft and was blown out by the pressure differential; barely missing the engine as he the aircraft continued its descent towards the ground. The plane hit the ground less than a minute later at full speed and disintegrated in a huge fireball. He used almost all of his power to slow his own descent and forward motion, hitting the ground hard but not really injuring himself. His clothes weren't so fortunate, leaving his expensive suit in tatters. He found himself in Brentwood, New York. The plane crashed about 15 miles to the east of here and as soon as he could find a replacement of his wardrobe, he intended to go and talk with his good friend, and quite possibly his next victim, Arthur.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

November 24, 1963

Janaline boarded the small airplane that would take her to Chicago, from there she would board an international flight bound for Paris, France. Once there she would contact Nooroo and then the two of them could deal with Emetrius. He had managed for frighten her but she wasn't going to stay frightened. She would soon go on the offensive.

Paris, France

January 28, 1964

Janaline had just finally managed to get Arthur on the phone. He had informed her that he was no longer working for her and that Emetrius was his new master now. She was angry about that as Arthur had served her so well. He had also told her that he was taking his network with him and was going to devote all of his time and energy attempting to locate the elusive Doctor. She looked at Nooroo and he smiled patiently at her. He didn't like to be in large cities, especially in Europe or America. So she traveled with him to Africa where she stayed for quite some time. At first they were wary of an impending attack from Emetrius but it never came. After a time, The One sought them out to inquire why they would ally themselves together but he soon went back to South America. After a time, the two of them wore on each other's nerves and Janaline decided to head back to Paris.

Nairobi, Kenya

February 7, 1982

Janaline walked in the bad area of town, hunting. Soon enough, someone would be foolish enough to attempt to make her a victim. As with her modus operandi, she would then victimize the assailant. She could hear her prey approaching and she feigned nervousness as she glanced at the lone male approaching her, wearing a hoodie. She quickly turned her head away and had to suppress a smile. Nooroo seldom hunted humans, preferring to kill only animals. All the humans that Nooroo had stalked, he made into vampires. Her victim was almost in reach and she decided to let him grab her before she "explained" it to him.

He grabbed her and then spun her around and threw her into a wall with such force that the bricks it was constructed with began to crumble around her.

Emetrius! Was all she had time to think before he grabbed her again and threw her into a wall across the street with similar results. As she was flying through the air, she noticed that Emetrius was moving almost as fast as she was so that when she impacted, she was grabbed and thrown again is a similar fashion only this time to fly up into the air several feet before crashing into another wall. The small amount of extra time that she had during her ballistic flight through the air gave her just enough time to be ready for his next attack. As he grabbed her, she grabbed back and they began to grapple. She bared her fangs, going for the kill when she realized she made a fatal error. Emetrius had grabbed her by the head and was already drawing her life-force from her. She screamed in rage, but really was powerless to do anything but thrash and struggle. She stared into his hate filled eyes and was planning being defiant until the bitter end. Emetrius drew about a third of her life-force from her and then put her gently back on her feet. She staggered and then fell to the ground.

"I seem to remember burying you in the ground for a long time. Do you remember that Janaline? I do, oh how I relived that memory over and over again."

She sat there and stared at him defiantly, waiting for the renewal of his assault. He managed to surprise her.

"Henceforth you will once again call me Master. You acquiescence is recommended, as I will make you so weak and will torture you so slowly, you'd swear that I made a career out of it."

"I will do as you ask Master." She said carefully

He held out his hand and when she took it, he helped her to her feet.

"Come, we have a flight to New York City. I actually intend on allowing the plane to land there this time. During the last 18 years I have made a rather extensive network, Arthur has expanded his. You will yours with ours and we are going to find out all we can about the Doctor and his TARDIS. It's an acronym for Time And Relative Dimension In Space. That's what he call's his blue phone box. Come now."

The TARDIS inside the vortex.

"I've got it Rose! I have located the source!" The Doctor cried happily with a smug smile on his face. "We are heading there now and then we can get those chips!"

Rose smiled in spite of the apprehension that she was feeling. Seeing the Doctor like this always made her happy. Seeing him like this was one of the reasons that she traveled with him, plus the fact that he had a time machine. She merely looked at him warmly as he worked the controls on the TARDIS.

"Here we are Rose, Cardiff in 2006. Let's go fix this and get those chips!" he said as he ran towards the door.

The instant he opened the door, all hell broke loose.


	11. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Antagonism

New York City, New York

March 30, 2006

"Master I just find this very disconcerting to say the least." Janaline said with frustration evident in her voice.

"Master I find myself in total agreement with my colleague here." Arthur said with an intention jab towards his former master.

"So the two of you, with a world wide global network that has been giving you real-time data failed to detect an organization that is been in existence since 1879?" Emetrius asked. "What I find disconcerting is that you two, with very vast and meticulous information gathering network that was unable to find this human organization. Janaline, what do we know about it now?"

"It was established in 1879 by Queen Victoria. Its prime purpose is to defend the earth against extraterrestrial threats. In its original charter, it was established to use its findings to restore the British Empire to its former glory…"

"Hail Britannia!" Emetrius interrupted sarcastically. "I know all that and what I am concerned about is how a "human" organization can escape our detection for 127 years. I also want to know what happened to our source within the organization. Tell me that."

"Master, over three hundred years ago, I made an offspring for the very purpose of infiltrating such human organizations. He was very good at what he did and he was absolutely ruthless in eliminating threats. He could alter his physical as well as his psychic appearances and walk right into any place he pleased. I even had him do the same to other vampiric networks with nothing but success. We accidentally discovered Torchwood and I sent him in. He managed to get out a limited amount of information. Ten days ago, we lost all contact with him. I had a psychic link to him so that I could read his thoughts at will." She ignored the dark look that both Emetrius and Arthur gave her as she continued.

"When we lost contact with him, that psychic link was abruptly cut off meaning that he has been destroyed. His body was found in Cardiff, Wales. Master, a group of well organized; well armed determined humans can kill a fledgling that is less that a year old only with great difficulty. This vampire was experienced and strong. He was over 300 years old. It would take a group of vampires to destroy such a creature or one of us; as in Nooroo, you, myself or The One."

"How is Bob doing these days?" Emetrius asked mockingly.

"Master there is going to be a huge fight between the two of you if you continue to antagonize him." Arthur said.

Emetrius ignored both of them and went to the multiple computer displays that lined the room. His organization had managed to confirm that there were ten incarnations of the Doctor. Somehow the man could change his body and mind and yet retain all the experiences of the preceding incarnations. It was also confirmed that the Doctor was a time traveler. Emetrius turned and regarded both of them and asked, "The Doctor is probably an alien being, and falling into the bailiwick of this Torchwood wouldn't you agree?"

"Yes Master it would seem to be a safe assumption." Arthur said.

"I concur." said Janaline.

"What affiliation would Torchwood have with U.N.I.T.?" asked Emetrius.

"I am sorry Master but we have insufficient information about Torchwood. The director of the London location is Yvonne Hartman."

Emetrius turned and went back to the displays of the Doctor. He stood there for several minutes seemingly lost in thought. Finally he turned and looked at his two minions.

"It's time for us to make a move. I want all political and economic options put into play at once. It would seem that this Torchwood is a threat to all of us and I intend to deal with it directly. I want our contacts in the various militaries around the world to be put into play. Start that at once, it is time for us to deal with U.N.I.T. as well."

"Master, The One is not going to be pleased about us doing this without consulting him first. He has carefully set his own operatives in place and this is going to be disruptive to him." Janaline said.

"Janaline, I shall deal with Bob when the time comes, you and Nooroo can sit out when that happens. You of all creatures should be aware that I can be more than persistent when I choose to be. Arthur, call ahead to the airport and get my Gulfstream V ready for the hop across the Atlantic, I am going to go and introduce myself to Ms. Hartman."

"Yes Master," Arthur said to Emetrius's back as he walked out. "Why do you think he is doing this?" he asked Janaline.

"It's quite impossible to tell. Other than finding the Doctor I don't know what he wants, what he is looking for."

Arthur began to dump a large some of money into the Asian stock markets as one phase of the plan that Emetrius had set into motion began. He looked at his former Master and he saw something there that astonished him. He saw fear.

Aboard the Gulfstream V

March 30, 2006

Emetrius thought about that very thing. He was going to force the Doctor to take him back to when all this began for him and somehow prevent it. Failing that, he was going to use all of his contacts to secure access to the world's nuclear arsenals. He would bring about the destruction of not only himself, but the rest of this wretched planet. He did not share Nooroo's, Bob's or Janaline's version of a vampire controlled world. This planet with all of its inhabitants was nothing more that a pasture stocked with cattle. He scoffed inside his head that any human could take out a vampire. He would show this Yvonne Hartman and all of her ilk just what a really determined vampire could do.

London, England

April 1, 2006

Yvonne Hartman stood by the video monitor, looking at the man sitting on the park bench across the street from Torchwood headquarters.

"How long has he been sitting there?" she asked her assistant.

"He has been there since just after 0200. He has been sitting there for the last 7 hours. Around 0600 we had a couple of our agents go and speak with him and he told them that he was just sitting there reminiscing about his late wife. He convinced them."

"He is not just a lonely widower, his name is Emetrius and he is one of 4 super vampires." Yvonne told her assistant. "At least that is they appear to call themselves and quite possibly that is how the vampiric mythos began is by these creatures. The one of those "things" that managed to infiltrate its way in here was dealt with."

She turned and looked at the two hybrid Day Walkers that served as her body guard and said "Tell me, is it possible to dispatch this one like we did the last one?"

"All true vampires are susceptible to UV radiation. That high intensity blast enabled us to kill the last one. Emetrius is one of 3 original vampires that were not created by another vampire. The fourth one, Janaline was created by Emetrius there and killed one of the originals ones and apparently was able to take its place. We will of course fight to the death for you Ms. Hartman. Look!"

The man on the bench got up and began to walk towards the front doors of the Torchwood Institute.

"Mister Emetrius, you will have a small surprise waiting for you," Yvonne said.

London, England

April 1, 2006

Emetrius had arrived at the park bench around 2:00am. His first impulse was to storm the building and go on an orgy of destruction but he resisted. He knew that he needed to exercise caution and was mindful of the fact that these people had managed to eliminate a relatively powerful vampire. He decided to sit here and wait to see what their reaction would be. He was immune to most human weaponry and had not to long ago been shot at close range in the head. Such a wound would be debilitating to a fledgling vampire but it had merely caused him to get very angry. A fact not lost on the shooter since he was trussed up in some nice heavy duty chain, turned into a Day Walker and buried in the middle of the desert. It is going to take him decades of tortuous existence to finally die. Around 6:00am, a couple of agents from the Torchwood Institute came around to talk to him. They were dressed in police officer's uniforms and he spent the time to craft a psychic tag on both of them. He now had the probable location of where inside that building, Yvonne Hartman would be located. He pulled out a fob watch and noted the time was 9:02am. He looked up into the clear blue sky and decided that now would be the time. A curious sensation passed through him. He knew he could be walking towards his death but that really didn't bother him. He was wearing an expensive tailored suite and a pair of dark sunglasses. He speculated that the people inside this building would be expecting him to strike at night as opposed to this daylight assault. He reached the front of the building and removed his sunglasses, unbuttoned his suit jacket and placed them inside the front pocket. He walked up to the doors and discovered that they were unlocked. The windows were more than likely bullet proof due to the green tint that they gave off when the sun light hit them. He walked into the foyer of the building. Six guards, armed with automatic weapons immediately challenged him.

"There is no need for you men to die today," he said to them as he regarded them.

"Stand down and let him pass," a female voice said over the guards collar mounted radio. The guards immediately lowered their weapons and allowed him to pass. Emetrius walked towards the stair case. He speculated the Hartman would be up near the top of the tower. He marveled at the fact that this place was not only in London, but one of the most recognizable buildings within the city. He ascended the stairway until he reached the floor where the two men that he implanted a psychic tag upon were at. He was mindful of the fact that he was more than likely being observed as he climbed the stairs in a leisurely pace. He tried the door and found it unlocked. He walked into what would appear to be a normal office setting. When the door closed, he heard an electronic lock take hold.

"Welcome Emetrius," Yvonne Hartman said. "It's not everyday that someone braves the lions den so casually."

Emetrius walked half the distance that separated him from her and stopped. He could see the Thames out the windows behind Hartman as she stood there before him with a slight smile on her face. He decided to get her attention by making a demonstration with the 70 or so people that were sitting at desks and computer monitors in the room. He reached out with his mind to begin to take their life-force from them and was astonished when he found out that he could not. It gave him pause and Hartman merely smiled.

"It would seem, that the great Emetrius has got a little more that he bargained for. You see, we have extensive information about you and all of your unnatural powers that you so casually employ. Let me see here, you were born Nigel Brown, 2 January, 1861 to Robert and Helen Brown right here in London. You led a quite unassuming life and were betrothed to Elizabeth Jones. Your life changed abruptly on the night of 4 November, 1888 when you made an unfortunate decision to use the London Underground to go and see your bonnie lass. You had the unfortunate luck of hiding on board the TARDIS which, unbeknownst to you, was a time machine and deposited you in the Egyptian desert in the year 1,000 B.C. Instead of staying put, which by the way if you had, you never would have been transformed into your current fashion, you ventured out into the night and somehow became the Vampire Emetrius. It's a fascinating story as to how you stayed faithful to a dream to one day be reunited with your bonnie lass, Elizabeth. It is funny to me how someone with all the power that you obviously possess, to stay so faithful to such a dream as you waited almost 3,000 years to see her once again. Your own treacherous creation was the one who spoiled that for you."

"Enough with the history lesson Ms. Hartman. Suffice it to say that I am impressed with your knowledge of my past. Information is a powerful tool and that is why I am here today. I need it and you have it. Tell me all that the Torchwood Institute knows about the man known as the Doctor and his TARDIS," he told her. "There is no need for a large death toll in here this morning. My conflict is with the Doctor and not with the Torchwood Institute."

"Catherine if you would be so kind," said Yvonne. A woman off to Yvonne's right hand side activated a control and a glowing blue force-field enveloped Emetrius where he stood. He stood slack jawed in amazement for several seconds before touching the field. It had an electric charge that would have proved fatal to a human. He pressed on the sides of the field, lightly at first, then with more force, finally with all the strength he possessed. He began to violently thrash and pound the field all to no effect. He stood very still at that point, almost if he was made of marble. He could hear the faint hum of the field as well as the generator that projected it. He could feel the airflow from the buildings air conditioning system against his exposed flesh.

"Mr. Emetrius, one does not brave the lions den without consequences. It is you that is going to be providing information today as opposed to us. Allow me to apologize in advance to this next demonstration," she said as she donned a pair of very dark glasses. All around the room, the others did the same. "Catherine if you would be so kind again."

Very intense UV lamps began to bombard Emetrius. Hartman stood there watching him with a smile on her face and her hands on her hips. Emetrius reacted as if scalding acid had been poured upon him and began to thrash and writhe in apparent agony. Truth of the matter is, that the UV beams were quite uncomfortable; they really had no debilitating effect upon him.

"That's enough with the UV lamps Catherine," Hartman said. "Now Mr. Emetrius, you will tell me the probable locations of the vampires known as Nooroo, Janaline and The One or you soon will wish that you had."

Emetrius merely stood still and looked at her, scarcely believing the condition that he was in. He looked over at Catherine on the controls and then back at Hartman. Then he closed his eyes and seemed to dissolve into a fine vaporous mist. The mist pooled along the floor, still within the force field then, against the air current that was blowing in the room, rapidly made its way to where Catherine was standing. The vapor swirled around her and then she screamed a high terrible scream and then fell sideways, her eyes wide and staring. The vapor coalesced back into Emetrius as he stood by the controls that Catherine had been controlling. He made fists with both hands and smashed the controls and all the electronics that were within reach. He reached into his jacket with both hands and came out with a pair of Sig Sauer pistols. He closed his eyes and emitted the high pitched screech that he used to use during the daylight in the past. Immediately he had a three dimensional map of the room and all of the targets contained within. A pair of figures was rushing towards him at a high rate of speed. Those would be the Day Walkers his mind registered as he loosed two shots from each gun, shooting both of the hybrid vampires in the eyes, incapacitating them. He had thirteen shots in each gun left and with the echoes from the guns still reverberating through out the room; twenty five more targets were either dead or dying in as much time as it took to pull the triggers. The last shot in the second gun jammed its action as Emetrius merely tossed it aside and reloaded the first gun. He targeted the UV lamps on the ceiling and what he thought was the mechanism that the force field came from. With a super human speed, he had Yvonne Hartman within his hand.

He looked into her eyes and said, "Hi!" with a feigned smile.

"Ms. Hartman, UV radiation on the exposed skin of a vampire is hellishly painful, but it's the eyes that would cause such a weapon to be incapacitating to a vampire such as me. While contact lenses have been around since 1827, modern day optics allows lenses to be made that block out 100% of all UV radiation going into the eyes. Did you not notice that my normally brown eyes have almost magically changed to be a jet black in color?"

Hartman's knees were shaking as she had so misjudged the creature that she had before her. He placed his hand on her chest, right above her heart and she could feel her life draining from her slowly. A high wailing screech escaped her lips as he let her slide to the floor. She was dying and she knew it. He then touched her on the head, and her breathing eased and yet she was still dying. She realized with horror what was happening to her. She was being transformed into a hybrid and she knew it.

"Ms. Hartman, I am more than prepared to show you that there are fates far worse than death. Rise to your feet and go into your office, pull up all relevant data regarding the Doctor, his TARDIS and Rose Tyler."

Sobbing, she rose to her feet and went into the next room. She turned on her terminal and logged in. All the relevant information was on the screen and Emetrius spent the next several hours pouring over the information. He sent it to Janaline in New York to be added to her catalog. All the time he was studying the information that the Torchwood Institute had on the Doctor.

"Ms. Hartman, I assume that you have a helicopter available?"

"Y-y-y-yes we do. Please don't leave me like this, complete my transformation."

"In due time, Ms. Hartman, in the interim, I need you to get that helicopter ready for a flight to Cardiff, and I need this vortex manipulator that I read about."

Hartman stood still, trying to resist, trying to hold to mandate of the Torchwood Institute. Emetrius walked up to her and took her left hand in his own, as if to gently persuade her. He crushed it in his own hand, the crackling bones making an audible noise. All the color drained out of Hartman's face as she screamed in agony.

She fell to the floor, clutching the ruined hand in her other. "Bring the vortex manipulator and get the helicopter ready to take off," she screamed.

"You are coming with me Ms. Hartman, lets be off now."

Cardiff, Wales

April 2, 2006

Emetrius walked to the geographic location where the rift is located and stood there for a moment. He was actually giddy with excitement. In moments, he would activate the vortex manipulator and the Doctor would shortly appear thereafter. The helicopter was in a field not to far away, its pilot's broken body was still in the cockpit. Yvonne Hartman was lying in the field a short way from the helicopter. He had shot her in the throat, destroying vocal cords, in her shoulders, her hips and her knees. He shot her several times in the abdomen and removed her eyes. She would spend decades in a hospital bed before her new hybrid nature would heal that damage; providing that Nooroo or The One didn't find her first and dispatch her. Her suffering made him happy.

He took a deep breath that he didn't need to and stretched his muscles in a purely human gesture. He set the vortex manipulator on the ground and activated it. He lowered himself into a three point stance and waited.

The familiar grinding noise of the TARDIS began to fill the air and Emetrius tensed. As soon as it had fully materialized, he broke into a fast run. The door had just begun to open when he reached it. He threw all the force he could muster and the door slammed open as opposed to being torn off of its hinges as he expected. The Doctor had been heading out and was thrown across the control room of the TARDIS and tumbled up against the consol. Emetrius tumbled in a somersault and was on his feet at once. With a primitive snarl, he launched himself at the hated Doctor again. The Doctor moved with a quickness that should not have been possible and used Emetrius's own momentum against him as he caused him to trip and stumble wildly. He didn't lose his footing this time and he turned to face the Doctor once again. He caught site of Rose Tyler out of the corner of his eye and decided in that instant, just to spite the Doctor he would transform her into what he was after the Doctor was dead.

"Stop," the Doctor cried holding up his hands. "Let me help you and we can find a way to reverse what has happened to you."

Emetrius paid him no mind as he crouched low, looking for an opening, ready to strike. Three thousand years he had waited for this moment and he would not rest until the Doctor lay dead at his feet.

He struck once again, rushing the Doctor in what would seem to be a blind rush again and the Doctor once again reached out to sending him flying again. Emetrius reached out at the last moment and grabbed the Doctor's arm, pulling him around with him. His hand reached out and grabbed hold of the Doctor's chest and began to drain the life-force out of him.

Rose Tyler reached out underneath the consol of the TARDIS and pulled out a cable. She rushed up and touched it to Emetrius's neck at which point, both her and the vampire were thrown clear of the Doctor. She flew backwards and struck her head on the consol, her consciousness exploding in sparkles. Emetrius flew head long and struck the opposite wall.

Emetrius was on his feet at once as the Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver, pointed it at Emetrius and activated it. At once Emetrius stopped and put his hands across his ears, snarling with pain. The Doctor adjusted the frequency of the screwdriver and Emetrius dropped to one knee. Another frequency change and Emetrius was on the floor. Finally in desperation, Emetrius reached out with his mind and battered against the Doctor's mental defenses. The Doctor hesitated slightly with the screwdriver and Emetrius was on him in a flash. He locked on with his hand and once again began to drain the life from the Doctor. The Doctor's face twisted in fear and he began to glow with swirling yellow energy.

"Doctor," Rose cried weakly, knowing what was happening and struggled to a sitting position. A flash of yellow light caught her attention. She turned and noticed that the consol of the TARDIS had opened in a small opening. With no hesitation, she looked into the heart of the TARDIS.

The Doctor began to regenerate and Emetrius was thrown to the floor as the yellow energy shot out in all directions from the Doctor. Instinctively, Emetrius reached out with his mind and the golden energy began to be drawn into his own body. Both he and the Doctor cried out at once and the energy flow ceased. The Doctor stood staring at his hands and feeling his face, a look of astonishment on his face.

Emetrius rose to his feet and said, "That was fun Doctor, let's do it again." He reached out for the Doctor.


End file.
